Wings Of A Goddess
by Anime93
Summary: Ryu travels to the big city of Tokyo after a lifetime of war and bloodshed. The popular place Now named Shinto Teito, he wants to live a simple life. But that just can't happen as life throws wrenches into the best of plans. His life will be anything but normal from here on out. But normal is boring! Who wants that?
1. Snowy Days

Ryu's eyes bolted open, his piercing violet eyes scanning his surroundings with practiced ease. He covered his mouth, lurching forward to quell the nausea that made his entire world spin. The bright lights on the ceiling didn't do him any favors, groaning he shook his head clearing his vision of the black and white spots that threatened to take him into the comfortable darkness.

_My aching head... _He mused to himself, taking this time to observe his surroundings now that he wasn't dizzy. He noticed there were people, tons of people around him slowly shuffling away not missing his weird eye color and the glare he was emitting. Barely shrugging at the fellow travelers he turned his attention to the window, gazing out, watching the snow fall in a wild flurry. He winced slightly when a gust of wind shook his window. Turning around he reclined in his seat closing his eyes.

Shinto Teito

The city.

It was a place he'd never been, but always heard about. Naturally, anyone would know about Shinto Teito, it's former name Tokyo before it was changed out of the blue. But, Ryu just wasn't anyone he is the son of Miya Asama and Takehito Asama, even though he has yet to find out. As such, he didn't grow up in the city, but in isolation on the country side on top of a mountain, or pretty damn close to the top. Coming to city was an experience for him, many would just shrug it off, but for Ryu it was sight. He could already see the skyscrapers and residential homes, this was a far cry from the country. The place that had been nearly deprived and torn apart by wars, he fought in these wars for his own protection as well as others. At that time, he could only wonder, why? The city prospered greatly over that last twenty or so years, but back at the place he called home there was depravity, disease, shortage of food, it never made any sense to the purple haired man.

That was until he lived through the horrors of war. What was once a question became a fact of life. Wars were inevitable, people would never learn to stop fighting. To come to an agreement. The reality was sad, his courage was tenacious second to none, but in the end that didn't matter in the least, it only fueled wars. Death. Famine.

That's how he wound up on this train, heading straight for the city. The place he used to blame for the misfortunes, but he knew better than that now. Shaking the thoughts away he turned back to look out the window, passing up time the best way he could think of. Sleep wasn't an option since the driver was informing them every forty five minutes or so, so he settled on snow gazing. Straightening out the wrinkles on his deep blue kimono he smiled slightly, it was peaceful watching the flakes fall one by one a thousand by a thousand, that was always a certainty in life. The seasons changed. He dragged a hand through his long, purple hair his vision covered up by the bangs once again. He felt so old, entirely too old he was only twenty and he had two decades worth of experience in that short time. Such was the life of a warrior.

_ETA one hour_.

Suppressing a growl, Ryu muttered a string of curses that would make even a sailor go blue in the face. The one thing he hated was being woken up or disturbed from his sleep. He noticed people casting glances at him only to turn in a different direction when he focused his eyes on them. _People. _He thought shaking his head slightly in admonishment, quick to talk but look in their direction and they shut up. Again, his eyes found themselves gazing out the window, the residential homes disappearing giving way to condos and high class hotels. He closed his eyes slowly dozing off.

* * *

Ryu carefully stepped down the platform providing stairs, making sure to duck under the top of the exit. Sometimes he hated being so tall. He fastened the large duffel bag onto his back looking around from side to side noticing people. There were people everywhere, even in this weather. Passengers were meeting their loved ones and friends their conversations carried by the icy wind, further from that were streetlights illuminating the white flakes and headlights of different vehicles dancing around in his vision. _First thing I need to do is get something in my stomach. _With this is in mind his zori sunk an inch into the snow as he made his way into the city.

It was a shock. Neon lights danced around him trying to attract customers everything from smoke shops to clubs were bustling with people. He made sure to steer clear of these busy areas, he wasn't one for crowds and the last thing he wanted to do was go in a club. He wasn't sure how long he'd been walking through the snowy city until he stumbled upon a small ramen shop. It was modest, not like the giant buildings or fast food establishments. It was half of their size at best with their name on the front windows and doors. He gripped the handle ignoring the bitter frost that tried to snake up his hand to his arm.

The smell of food wafted his nostrils from every direction, the heat only intensified the scent of a home cooked meal. There were tables and booths on the 'first floor' the 'second floor' which was only a stair case consisting of seven stairs going along the side of the buildings was decked out with booths and tables. The booths he noticed were made of the best material possible seeing there were no rips or tears in it. Usually there was six inch gashes in these kind of seats. A loud growl brought him out of his musings, protectively he crossed his arms over his stomach, what was worse a punch to the gut or something that felt pretty close to it?

He approached the counter with a blank expression staring at the menu with wide eyes. There was so much, much is an understatement. He counted at least twenty different ramen dishes, and thirty different desserts and that wasn't including the deals they were having today. "I'll take three bowls of spicy chicken ramen, and one bowl of hot sopa." Ryu said as politely as he could shaking off his dumbfounded state. The cashier looked at him sideways for a second before she shrugged ringing up his order. Grimacing as he turned away from the lady's screeching voice, he took a seat at a table to the far right where there were just a few people. He sat down setting his duffel bag under the table on the other side, reclining into his seat he glanced around once more surprised there was so much activity.

_So this is the city? _He couldn't hide his surprise. It was lively, his sensitive senses catching everything from a strange sound to some weird odor he'd rather not know where it came from. A few minutes later, ten at the most his food arrived in all of its steaming glory. His irises grew twice their normal size as the aromas hit him all at once, suppressing a drool he grabbed his chopsticks working on his first bowl of ramen. His taste buds exploded with joy at the first taste, smiling to himself he began to eat faster slurping the noodles down in a few gulps and drinking the warm broth. He sighed contently as the warm liquid traveled down his system warming his entire body from the inside out. Wasting no time he got to work on his second bowl of ramen.

Ring

Ring

Ring

Ring

Flaring his nostrils, Ryu dug through his pocket pulling out a phone staring at it as if doing that would make it explode. Grunting he flipped it open bringing it to his ear with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Yo, Ryu how ya been?" A confident voice questioned from the other line.

"Just fine Johnny, but why are you calling?" Ryu questioned resting his elbow on the table as he stared out the window contemplating this to himself.

"What!? I can't call our number one fighter? You hurt my Ryu," the man feigned a hurt voice before chuckling. Ryu gripped his phone, second thing he hated was being disturbed when he was eating. "I hear you've traveled."

"I did." Ryu responded in a monotone.

"Details! Details! Tell me you got a pretty lady, eh?" Ryu turned a hint of red hearing the man's laughter, if it was possible it was even louder now than before. He took a few breaths composing himself.

"No, you perv! I guess Sonya hasn't hit you hard enough yet." Ryu said half joking half serious as the man's laughter stopped for a moment before he picked back up where he left off. "Anyways, why did you call? Not that I mind Johnny." Ryu said in a business like tone.

"Mmm Sonya, she'll come around sooner or later!" At this Ryu rolled his eyes. This man spent the better half of two years pestering a woman that could take on ninety percent of the population without breaking a sweat. It wasn't smart, even he didn't dare to incur her wrath upon him after seeing Johnny get thrown through a wall made of titanium. "But you are right. Sadly, this isn't a social call." His voice became serious. "We've been tracking strange energy sources in your area."

Ryu stretched his sense for a moment, indeed he could sense whatever Johnny was talking about. "Well, I am sensing whatever is you're talking about. But, what could it be?" He asked pondering it himself. These sources were strong, alien, but was it the worse he's ever felt? Not in a long shot.

"Hmmm." The line was quiet for a moment. "Tarkatans usually strike the most populated cities. Tokyo, or as it has now been deemed Shinto Teito would be a hot spot for this little demons..."

"Well have someone else take care of it." Ryu said with a grumble, sipping some tea from his cup. "I don't do reconnaissance and if it's not Tarkatans I'm not too concerned about the situation." He said matter of fact taking another sip from his tea.

"That's a good idea, but it's not possible." Johnny stated bluntly. "Sonya and her squad are still battling in Kahn's realm, and Jax is leading his own squad with good ol Liu. You're the only one available." He explained smoothly unaware of the purple haired man's growing temper. "I don't know who or what these are, but I want you to check it out and keep your eyes open." This time Ryu calmed himself in a second, this man's voice wasn't the same jovial charismatic tone he was used to. He scooted closer to the window.

"Is there no records of whatever these... _Things _are?" Ryu asked carefully, almost hesitantly.

"No." Was the simple, blunt answer. "And that's what scares me the most is that there is no record of whatever it is running around out there..." He cleared his throat. "I'll try to look into this more in depth, but I need you to stay vigilant. Can I count on you?"

"The next time you hit on Sonya will she take it or give you a black eye?" Ryu asked, snickering after he heard his friend's sigh.

"That's not funny." Johnny said feigning hurt. "They always come running back to yours truly." He could see the man smirking in all of his cocky glory after saying that. "But, enough jokes. Can I count on you Ryu. I don't know what it is we're dealing with or whom, and you're the best man we have for this job."

"Tch." Ryu scoffed lightly. "Is that even a question? How many times have I had to save your sorry ass in battle? You can count on me Johnny, I'll keep my eyes open and will keep my guard up. But you very well but figure what is going on, I'll do my best to figure out what I can."

"That time in the dead forest and acid pits don't count!" Johnny exclaimed clearly flustered at being put on the spot. "I know I could! Good do so, and please be careful Ryu. I'll figure out what I can until then just try to blend in."

"Haha." Ryu mused sarcastically. "I have purple hair, I don't think there is a blending in for me. But I'll do my best."

"Excellent, and I'll be sending you registration forms for college to apply for."

"School, seriously!?"

"Yes. You can't run around faster than a car moving at its top speed without some sort of cover. You will investigate this matter, and I will send you the applications. Sonya would tear strips from my ass if you got killed, so get to it Understand?"

"Yeah, sure. Whatever." Ryu growled snapping the phone shut ending the call. _Now I can go back to eating. Damn that man. _Ryu grumbled mentally slurping his second bowl of ramen down in several seconds his mind wandering to his friend's and former superior's call. Who or what were these strange things running around the city? If it was enough to put Johnny on edge then it was serious, dead serious. That man couldn't take getting thrown through a wall seriously, so just what was going on?

_Enough about that... _He smiled going to work on his last bowl of ramen and hot sopa.

* * *

"Thank you, come again sir!"

"Ah, I will. The food was great!"

Ryu patted his belly affectionately pushing the door open inhaling the frigid air not a second later, he let the breath out pushing away Johnny's conversation and focusing on something else. A home. He glanced around trying to get a sense of direction, his eyes fell on the tallest tower in the city with a clock face. _North, and then east. So... _He pondered for a moment before walking forward for several blocks then turning to his left.

The snow continued to fall relentlessly as it got well into the night, and like always the temperature began to drop well below the twenty degree mark, this didn't seem to bother Ryu too much. He'd been through worse than just a little cold, he continued on his path seeking a place he could call home. Every attempt so far left him with a door slammed in his face and his nasty temper close to surfacing. A simple no would do, they didn't need to look at his hair and then his eyes like he was some sort of freak. Different yes, but not a freak. He supposed it was weird seeing someone with purple hair and violet eyes, nobody else had that combination.

"Ugh..." He groaned for the millionth time, another search, another failure. He swung his duffel bag using his shoulder to bear the brunt of its weight and obnoxious size. "At this rate I'm going to be sleeping under a park bench..." He grumbled walking towards another apartment complex just several blocks down from this one. Sleeping on the streets is something he didn't want to do, or would do. He'd break in a store or something before he had to resort to that, this just drove him more to find a home. Modest at best nothing too grand or spectacular.

He realized these people were all ignorant. Ignorant to the very core, business was business and personal affairs stayed out it. But, how could you turn someone away when it was snowing like cats and dogs? The very thought made his blood boil and his ears turn a bright red. To think he fought to protect these morons, this ignorant fools who only cared about the next dollar, only cared for themselves. But this was reality at its best, the city he wanted to see. It wasn't what he expected but from the snide and rude people around him sending him questionable looks he wanted to punch them in the gut. So he had purple hair and violet eyes who cares!?

"Idiots.." He growled setting his hands on the opposite arms so his sleeves were joined together. How long was he going to be roaming around aimlessly, getting turned down? Not long he knew that much consequences be damned he wasn't going to be sleeping outside tonight like some bum. Mulling over his previous thoughts and Johnny he couldn't help but get annoyed, he just wanted some time, peace time. He certainly didn't want to go to school and whoever or whatever these things were exuding so much energy he certainly didn't want to run into one. If they were like the Tarkatans they'd be bloodthirsty demons that would spill each others' blood in a second. _I don't think Tarkatans are here, I can't smell blood and death. _He thought with a small nod.

One give away that a Tarkatan or a horde of them was near is that air reeked of blood and death. It was a stench not even his comrade in arms Hotaru could muster the stomach to quell. They were death itself, savages since birth and lead by the king of their clan of savages. It was rumored they were a mixture of demons from the Netherrealm and mutants from Outworld. Either way they were disgusting in Ryu's book. Hopefully he wouldn't encounter any, those cold yellow slit eyes and razor sharp teeth that couldn't even be kept in their mouth from the size of those daggers. He rubbed his temples suppressing the oncoming headache that was about to take effect.

Chatter, chatter.

Ryu stopped in his tracks glancing around calmly. The chattering continued with no sign of stopping. His first instinct was that there was an enemy around or some sort of projectile was being thrown towards him. He shook that off since there was no whistling within close proximity to him. His second guess was there was a broke down car somewhere, probably one of those morons that went eighty in a thirty mile speed limit zone. But he quickly pushed that aside since there we no cars within the immediate vicinity and if that were the case he was certain he'd hear derogatory and crude remarks directed at said car. Why did people speak to inanimate objects? His last guess was that someone was very, very cold and their teeth were chattering. Not surprising since it was about ten degrees and dropping at a steady rate. Who in the seven hells would be outside at this time of night? Anybody with a semblance of sense would be indoors right now drinking something warm and watching a movie. Maybe training but he doubted anyone here was into the martial arts or swords anything of that sort.

"Well, I can't leave whoever it is out to turn into a Popsicle." He said to himself, raking a hand through his hair again while groaning. He was torn help this person, or help himself. It wasn't a hard choice naturally he'd want to help himself, but the chattering got worse and he didn't have a dentist, this person would need one in the foreseeable future. With that in mind, he turned towards an alley he stopped in front of, taking several steps into it. His eyes traced about the dark path the moonlight dancing through the shadows. He followed the chattering noise, using that as his guide. "Why would anyone be out here?" He wondered aloud coming to a stop as the chattering was in close vicinity, very close. He looked over noticing a box that constantly moved and shifted every few seconds to a minute.

Now, Ryu knew better than to just see who was in it. He learned his lesson after seeing Johnny get tossed several times for going in the shower when Sonya was in there. Why the man persisted in these crude he'd never know. There were showers for the men, and they had their own private showers in addition. _Idiot. _Ryu swallowed the dry lump in his throat crouching down so he'd be face level with whoever or whatever was trembling in this , and almost like a surgeon performing heart surgery he gingerly began to nudge the box until there was a small opening.

What he seen was the last thing he was expecting.

It was a girl. No a woman. From the way she was huddled she had to be tall. She had dark indigo eyes and had short black hair that went to her chin, the top was unruly moving in every direction with a few spikes here and there, her bangs were long reaching her cheekbones and falling over her forehead. Her outfit was something else entirely, right away Ryu knew she wasn't... Normal.

For a shirt she wore a green Chinese styled shirt, with yellow outlines going down her sides, and around the sleeves that stopped just above her shoulder. There was bold, purple line going up from the bottom of her dress all the way up to her neck on the left side For pants she wore a pair of dark green tight bloomers. Finishing her outfit was a pair of thigh high white high heeled boots, they went past the top of her thigh stopping just below her hips.

She must've been an athlete of the highest caliber from the way her body was. It wasn't huge or even built, it was womanly her skin glowed even in the darkness and her muscles were compacted under that glowing velvet skin. The last two things he noticed was there was a big 19 printed on her left boot at the top, and by her side were two kodachis.

_Kodachis! _Ryu's sense smacked like a sledgehammer, immediately he was tense and ready for a fight. Better safe than sorry, but he didn't move from his spot he stayed frozen waiting for this woman to say or do something. After a solid five minutes he decided to break the ice. "Umm, excuse me?" He asked quietly hoping not to alarm her.

The woman in question looked up at him blankly before her eyes widened in alarm. "Hold on now." Ryu said quickly waving his hands in front of him in a sign of surrender. "I'm not here to harm you or mess up your spot, but I heard chattering." He said calmly trying to put her at ease but the woman still seemed on edge. He couldn't blame her living on the streets was hard, even harder for a woman. He didn't want to know what horrors she endured. "Do you have a home?"

The woman stared at him for a long moment with an analytical and critical eye. He knew that look she was studying him down to the last detail to formulate a plan to either run or talk to him. Slowly she retracted her arms from her two kodachis her eyes drooping instead of widening with alarm. "This is my home..." She said with a downtrodden expression on her face not looking him in the eye. "I had nowhere to go so I made this." She shakily nodded to the box around her.

_Poor thing. _Ryu thought to himself. He wasn't the complete sentimental mushy type of person. But seeing this was heart wrenching. She had nowhere else to go? That was hard to believe in all reality. A woman like her could get anything she wanted, when she wanted, she could play the cards right and have whatever she liked, men would grovel and beg at her feet. But watching her body language he knew she wasn't lying, he knew what to look for and he didn't see the telltale signs of her lying or trying to fabricate one.

She was honest, she really had nowhere to go. He rummaged through his pocket pulling at a meduim sized bag the heat still radiating from it. "Look, I'm not good at this sort of thing." He scratched his head awkwardly as she turned to look up at him her indigo eyes a contrast to his violet eyes, he struggled to keep his eyes on hers and not on her breasts that only Kami knew stayed firmly in place under that dress. He unrolled the top of the bag rummaging through it for a few seconds.

The girl in question stared at him with a mix of curiosity and apprehension. What was he pulling out of that bag? Then the smell wafted into her nostrils. Food! Ryu clasped a large roll he got from the ramen shop looking at the girl he found just two minutes ago. "Here," he smiled softly extending his arm forward with the steaming bread. The woman looked at it for a moment before gently taking it out of his hand to examine it. "They're fresh. I just got them, it should help keep you warm for just a little while." She looked at him again struggling to speak. She wanted to say thank you, and so many other things but a lump grew in her throat and she felt like she was suffocating.

_He's so kind._ She thought clenching the roll gently with her hands. She tried to speak again but only a gasp came out, her face flushed from the strange noise. She didn't want to seem like a complete bimbo or prude. _Why can't I talk. _She stared into his eyes again with amazement while he looked at her with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. Most likely because she was still holding the bun and not eating it.

"Hey," he waved slightly in front of her eyes causing her to jump in surprise. Ryu grimaced for a second before continuing. "Didn't mean to scare you." He waved his hands again. "But, do I have something on my mouth?" He wiped his lips and the area around it with his sleeve blushing for a moment as the thought of crumbs or sauce still remained on his lips. He glanced at said sleeve finding nothing. While he examined his sleeve carefully the girl stared at him. His hair, his eyes, his lips, she could see him muscles about to rip through his clothing or so it seemed. She took a bite of the roll sighing happily as the warmth spread from her mouth all the way to her toes and finger tips. She smiled staring at the steaming roll in her hand then back at Ryu again.

"Well, we should be going shouldn't we?" Ryu asked standing up from his perch and reaching his hand out to her. The woman almost gaped her mouth at him in shock, he was really going to take her? A home, a nice warm home with a cozy bed and soft blankets. The thought caused her to clench the roll a little tighter. _Why... Why is he doing this? For me a complete stranger when he doesn't have to? _Swallowing again barely, she gave a small nod reaching for her kodachis.

"I'll get those," Ryu offered grabbing the dual bladed weapons with one hand offering a smile in return.

"O-Okay. But w-why?" She stuttered slightly taking another bite from the steaming roll relishing its warmth.

"I can't leave you out here all alone in the cold and the dark." Ryu said with a deadpan expression that caught the girl off guard. Never had she seen someone be so honest, there was no ploy, no plot, no clouds of lies and confusion. She'd call him a simpleton but she didn't know enough yet, but she knew one thing. He was kind, very kind. And because of that she grabbed his hand allowing him to pull her to her feet. She was surprised at how effortless he did it, and for the pulse of heat that erupted through her entire body that followed soon after.

Scratching his head again Ryu turned around to hide his blush. Yes he seen girls naked before, but no girls looked like this. At least not any that he took an interest in or vice versa, they were normally too old for him. "So, let's find a home now. Okay?" He asked, turning back once the red was gone from his face.

"Y-Yes." The girl answered.

With another mouth to feed. Ryu was now more determined than before to find a home, a place they could call home. Even though he didn't know the girl's name at all, and barring the fact she had a 19 tattooed on her leg he couldn't guess at all. _So should I call her 19? I'll ask for her name when we get settled. _He noted to himself mentally as they began their walk towards the original direction Ryu was going in.

Neither of the two noticed their their hands which had been interlaced before were still laced together. The woman stared up at the tall purple haired man with awe and amazement. But more so than those two things her indigo eyes shone with love and affection. _I've found you... At last after all of this time, my Ashikabi._


	2. What?

Hey all! Thanks for the reviews! Even if it's one of my long time readers and organizers and someone new every bit is cool.

* * *

Last time on Wars, Wings, Sekirei, and Wagtails.

Ryu had just awoken on his train ride to the city of Shinto Teito. After receiving a phone call his seemingly normal life has once again steered to the surreal. Thanks to a call from Johnny he was informed, vaguely. He met a girl living in a box, offers her a place. Now we continue.

* * *

Finding a place was a lot of trouble. Too much trouble, never in his life did Ryu ever think it would be this complicated. He had the money to pay. It was maddening what was wrong with people in this city? In general? Was everyone self centered and downright ridiculous?

Luckily he happened to stumble upon someone, at first he was thankful. But this person was just as moronic as the others, after taking care of some thugs that had been reportedly causing trouble for some time, the owner happily gave him a key to the best room he had. On the agreement that Ryu keeps an eye out if there was any noise.

He agreed. A couple of thugs weren't even a problem. Turned out it was an actual group, that made quite the mess.

The apartment was modest, something he was fond of. The walls were planted an aqua blue with white trimmings. The bathroom was one of the largest rooms second to the kitchen and living room. There was a fully operational shower and bath for use in the bathroom, Ryu sighed in relief at this detail, for the simple fact he took showers and not baths.

The bathtub in itself was enough to fit two of him, and that wasn't to be made light of since he stood at six foot three and weighed two hundred pounds, all of those pounds were muscle and nothing else. The sink was a shining white with silver knobs, no doubt made from a high quality material, a cabinet was above the sink on the wall for things like toothpaste, floss, and things of that spectrum.

The bedroom was something else entirely. He wasn't used to living like a king, but if he had to guess what it was like to be in ones bedroom it'd be like his. There was king sized bed that took up nearly the entire room, red and white blankets were neatly spread over the mattress with the pillows set neatly at the head of the bed.

There were six in total. The closet was humungous for lack of a better term, there were doubled shelves at the top. As of now it was completely empty making it look even more spacious, he didn't doubt when it was completely filled there would be enough clothes for a small army. Thank Kami he didn't wear that many clothes, better put he didn't have a broad selection.

The second bedroom was just about the same as the first except it had an even larger closer and a queen sized bed.

The kitchen was everything he could hope for. In the front corner of the room there was a operational oven, that wasn't gas powered. It had eight burners on the top and a large door for baking anything. In the center of the room, at the back was the fridge. The fridge was at least twelve feet, it had two doors at the front and two more at the bottom. When you opened the first two it was the fridge itself there were four platforms acting as shelves. The bottom were large drawers that would be the freezer. He couldn't wait to fill it up with edibles besides his rolls and ramen he got to go.

The living room was what got his attention. At the back of the room was a large black leather couch that took the entirety of the wall. Even with his height at least four more people could fit with him. Opposite of that was a sofa, it was soft to the touch, it was about half the size of the couch and curled out on the ends slightly. There was a table in the center of the room, right in front of the sixty inch flat screen TV that caught Ryu's attention right away. The table was made of hard oak and polished to immaculate condition, the TV spread across the wall stopping three quarters of the way, he was no expert on TVs but the brand was VIZIO. He wouldn't complain the only TV he seen was a little junker about sixteen inches. And the picture quality, hell the picture was horrible. And the sound was horrendous.

All in all he was more than happy. This was more than what he could have asked for.

"Ahh..." Ryu stifled a yawn as he rose from his bed, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He was wearing nothing except for a pair of black shorts keeping his torso exposed. Several scars were visible crisscrossing his muscular torso and some could be seen on his back. Normally people would be ashamed of these, but Ryu wasn't. These were the scars from the battles he survived a testament to his skill and prowess. He sighed tiredly setting his feet down on the floor walking to the closet, he grabbed a black t shirt making his way towards the door.

_I wonder if that girl left. Should I call her 19 for now? _He chuckled quietly, he knew the moment she made contact with the bed in the second room she was out like a light. He didn't sneak a peek since he went to sleep shortly after, but he thought that she would leave.

No doubt Johnny would be all over her, and being chopped to pieces by those kodachis. And not in that order. "I'll never get him," Ryu mused turning the knob until it clicked. He glanced down the hallway hearing the pitter patter of water. "I guess she didn't leave..." He scratched the back of his head sheepishly heading towards the kitchen to heat up his left overs. He poured the rest of his ramen into a bowl putting it in the microwave for two minutes.

He clicked the start button and took a seat at the kitchen table mulling over the events that transpired in just twenty four hours. He speculated if Johnny just enjoyed annoying him. The man was eccentric too eccentric for his own good, and that arrogance didn't help. He made a mental note to hang him over the acid pits next time they met.

The woman from yesterday walked into view with a towel wrapped around her body. Her unruly hair now laying nicely over her forehead, ears, and going down to her chin.

Ryu stared at her subtly there was still moisture on her velvety skin dripping down to her ankles. Her hair was still wet. The towel did nothing to hide her curves. Yesterday he hadn't been paying much attention, but now that he could get a better look he got lightheaded. Either she wasn't human or she was one hell of an athlete and trained to the bone. Her breasts were at least a large C cup the towel conformed to her curvaceous and developed figure covering her breasts just enough so she was modest. Her waist was slim giving her an hourglass shape, and even through the towel he could see her toned stomach. Her legs were long, very long. He figured she stood at least five foot ten judging from the length of them. Said legs were exposed up to the top of her knee. How her shirt could fit those breasts he'd never guess in a million years.

"Um, good morning." He said awkwardly, trying to be friendly but not a complete creep.

"It is a good morning." She replied walking towards the couch but came to a stop staring at Ryu for a long moment.

He cleared his throat gently looking at her. "Yes?"

"Does me state upset you?" She asked with a straight face.

"State? Upset?" Ryu scratched the top of his head, trying to figure out what exactly it was she was trying to get at it.

"Would you prefer me to take the towel off?" She asked bluntly looking at him questionably.

"W-What!?" He stuttered choking on his spit.

"I could take it off, if it makes you happy?" She inquired with the same look.

"No, no it's fine." Ryu said waving his hand nonchalantly as the other plugged his nostrils to suppress a nose bleed. "Just keep the towel on..." He paused looking her over once. "Wait, why are you wearing a towel still?" _  
_

Knock.

Ryu looked at the door for a second before standing up and strding towards it. "Any idea who that could be? A friend of yours?" He asked earnestly, looking at her with the same questionable expression.

"I'm not exactly sure," she admitted. "But it's not for me." She looked at the couch for a second turning back to Ryu. "Is it okay if I sit down?"

"Yes, yes," Ryu nodded his head quickly. "This is our home, remember? And it's better that nobody sees you this way." Ryu replied turning his head, continuing towards the door.

_So he was serious? _The girl wondered mentally as she took a seat on the leather feeling a slight chill on her buttocks, she crossed her leg over the other mulling over her thoughts._ I like his hair and eyes so pretty. Being sexy helps though.  
_

"I don't want to see you here again." Ryu hissed with ice in his voice slamming the door shut and strolling towards her with a large box. He turned to his side setting the thing on the kitchen table, staring at it for a moment before turning to look at her. Instantly he tried to find a place to look at that wasn't so... Private? He settled on her indigo eyes that had a glint of amusement dancing through them for a fleeting second. _Great she caught me ogling. _He groaned mentally chastising himself for spacing out.

"Who was that?" She asked adjusting herself so she was comfortable. She didn't know why but the skin on her butt kept sticking to the seat.

"I have no idea," Ryu said honestly hiding the shock and anger that surged through him. "But he just left this box?" He tapped the top of it with a curious expression, "I wonder what could be in here. It was light for such a large box." He remarked looking at the woman for answers.

"Hmm..." She hummed her own curiosity peaking. "I do wonder." She said out loud, standing up and walking towards him. Again Ryu tried to focus on her eyes but that didn't work, so he adverted his gaze to the box. It was interesting to say the least. "Why didn't you open it?" She asked with a raised eyebrow looking at him quizzically.

"I didn't know what was in it," Ryu answered honestly. "And I didn't order anything to have delivered by some creep, maybe it's yours?" He asked and said at the same time hoping to some degree it was hers. If it wasn't hers why was that man here and what was really in this box? A bomb? Some sort of new cyber device that those conspiracy theorists entertained themselves with while arguing with each other? That was always good for a laugh.

"It could be," she replied tearing the first side of the top of, quickly tearing off the other. She shoved her hands into the box without a second thought. She was grateful for everything this man had done for her in the last 24 hours. For some it wouldn't be much, but to her it was like being born again or having the world in her palm. She felt warm and safe, she just wasn't sure how to explain her feelings, and more importantly what she wanted from him. Maybe he'd ask later? It'd be better if he starts the conversation.

"Ah, my clothes!" She said beaming a smile at him before pulling out a green Chinese styled dress and dark green bloomers with white heels and stockings. She turned to Ryu again noticing her was eyeing her critically. The same way she had been eyeing him just hours before. She knew two things were going through his mind. One: If these were indeed her clothes what was her connection to that man he threatened. Two: She was always prepared for the worse, so a way to dispose her. She sincerely hoped and prayed to whatever higher being would listen to her. It'd tear her apart, the one man she was destined to spend her entire life with killing her instead. Unconsciously she began to play with one of her bangs, a thin layer of sweat forming on her forehead.

"You're nervous." Ryu said suddenly walking towards her with the same look in his eyes as before. He glanced into her box his expression not faltering for a second, as quick as he looked in he turned his eyes back on her. "Who was that man? How did he know to come to this exact door. There's over five hundred rooms here and he picks ours by chance? Not likely." Her head began to spin, her stomach turned into knots and the lump from yesterday returned full force, the entire time he stared at her.

She gazed into his violet irises struggling to speak, her mouth dropped but no words were coming out. She felt a jolt of unimaginable heat rip through her again, the knots became tighter and the lump grew. _Ashikabi-sama. _She grimaced slightly, it was happening again but worse this time. _I can't talk, why? _She questioned herself mentally. "Who was he?" His voice snapped her back from reality, she turned to look up at him a feeling of anxiety threatening to sweep her off of her feet. Now, she was taller but Ryu was just a giant he stood a good six inches above her and that was with bare feet.

"I.." She struggled to speak, trying to swallow the lump so she could do so. But, it didn't go down no matter how hard she tried, and to make things worse another jolt of heat rocked her to her core sending out a tingling sensation everywhere on her body. Everywhere. Quickly she contracted the muscles in her uterus already feeling the tingling hit like a sledgehammer to her face. She looked at him struggling to speak she knew her mouth was open and she was trying to form words, even a noise but nothing came out. "I..." She gasped quietly.

"Out with it." Ryu said calmly taking a step towards her. Her nose and lips almost touching his torso, either of them had to lean forward and they could kiss. The girl clenched the towel close to her body out of reflex as another heat wave engulfed her being, the tingling got worse than before. Now she could barely suppress what was happening as before she just kept her legs together, now that seemed to make it only worse. The girl began to inhale and exhale roughly leaning forward so her head was resting on his torso, inadvertently this caused her towel to drop to the floor leaving her developed body exposed and out in the open. Not that she minded, not anymore.

"Woah, woah. Wait." Ryu said gathering her towel hastily, before pushing her a few inches away wrapping it around her body again. She shivered slightly under his touch suppressing her moan. "Just, um.. Get dressed and we can talk it about after." Ryu said taking a few steps back, the woman nodded taking her outfit and heading back to the bathroom.

"Aye," Ryu muttered, walking to the microwave and taking his ramen out. He didn't realize it had been done for the past five minutes, the conversation with this woman took a dramatic turn, never before had he just had a woman throw herself at him. Kitana was different, she enjoyed flustering and teasing him, and it didn't help she was over ten thousand years old, then there was Jade her best friend who would join in and push the envelope. One too many times did he accidentally walk into the hot springs when one or both of them were in there, it didn't help when they'd stay in it until he got out saying embarrassing things as he scurried out.

By all stretches of the imagination this took him by surprise for the simple fact he didn't even know her name. "I always get myself into these messes," he murmured, plopping down on a chair and resting his elbows on the table as he massaged the sides of his head. _Who was that man? _He asked himself mentally, reclining in his chair, it wasn't just chance that he just knocked on _their _door. He must have known they were here, but how?

_Maybe Johnny is right. There could be something going on... _He slurped some noodles trying to gather what he could about his situation. They were on the southern part of the city, he arrived yesterday, ran into that strange girl, roughed up a couple of thugs to get this room, and now he was sitting in the kitchen about to get a migraine from thinking too much. He sighed, crossing his arms. "I'd better ask her since she knows more than me about this. I didn't get her name either." He silently admonished himself for being absent minded.

A few minutes later the woman came back into his vision wearing the same outfit as before except she didn't wear the heels and stockings keeping her feet bare. She glanced at the man who was kind to her so far, that gave her a warm bed to sleep in, he was troubled clearly. She couldn't blame him, this was an almost five hundred room complex and that man just knocked on their door, it wasn't chance at all, it was her own doing inadvertently. Of course Minaka would send one of those lackies to deliver her clothes, she was thankful she had them. She wasn't sure how much longer she'd tolerate her butt sticking to the cushions of the leather couch. "May I speak?"

Ryu looked at her like she was a monkey doing trigonometry. "Of course. You don't need to ask me to talk." Ryu said with a blank expression. _Why would she ask that? _He wondered silently. Since when did people ask for permission to speak, the military sure, but normal people never asked permission, in fact they couldn't shut up if their life depended on it. That much he was certain of from his observations.

Either this girl had a military background or she was something else entirely. He was leaning towards the latter why else would she have kodachis? It wasn't a secret that the weapons ban was lifted in this city, and almost everyone was carrying some sort of weapon be it gun, knife, sword, axe, the list was endless. He beckoned her to sit down, the girl obediently took a seat across from him. "I never got your name."

The woman opened her mouth to answer but a loud growl cut her off. She flushed red looking at the table top. "I guess we can talk after a nice meal." Ryu said with a shrug walking towards the fridge, a few minutes later he set down a bowl of ramen in front of the girl, taking a seat on his chair. She stared at it, looking as if she was trying to examine it for poisons. "You should eat before it gets cold." He said quietly shaking the girl from her stupor.

She gave a small nod starting to eat the contents. Ryu kept his face composed but nearly failed, this woman almost inhaled the ramen he never seen someone eat so fast besides himself and two other people, it was mind boggling. But she did have a sexy build for lack of a better term so he assumed it was only right that she had a vigorous appetite. At least she was healthy.

"Have enough?" He asked after she was done drinking the broth. The woman in question gave a small nod before clearing her throat gently.

"My name is Ikki." She said curtly.

"Ikki?" Ryu let the name roll off of his tongue a couple times, nodding his head. "Well, Ikki. My name is Ryu, nice to meet you." He extended his hand for a shake. Now known as Ikki took his hand in her own shaking it rapidly trying to ignore the inferno that was going to consume her with this contact.

"Nice to meet you too." She managed to say before a silent gasp escaped her lips.

"If you don't mind me asking... Why were you in a box?" He questioned quietly. He wasn't certain of her circumstances and the subject could be touchy so he made sure to keep his voice in a level inviting tone.

"I had no home or place to go..." She answered, sadness dancing across her indigo eyes for a moment. "And nobody would take me in, so I just stayed there." She shrugged. "I thought I'd never find that person, but last night I think I did." She answered in a quiet whisper staring into Ryu's irises for a long moment.

"Oh?" He raised his eyebrow. "Who is it? I'll help you look for them." He offered.

Ikki's eyes widened. "You'd really do that for me? But, I'm just a stranger."

"Sure, why not?" Ryu asked. "Everyone deserves to be with someone in their life. Mmm, no you were, but now I know who you are." He gave a smile. "So, tell me who is it?" He leaned his elbows on the table staring at her with curiosity.

_Wow... _Ikki thought struggling to wrap her mind around this man. He was earnest, sincere, honest. There was no trickery and he didn't want to violate her body. If anything it seemed he was quite the prude and wanted to protect her. But, she never seen anything like this back at MBI when they were playing the training videos to prepare her to enter the city, there were things of rape, burglary, the good, the bad, and everything in between. And, she believed that the world, this world was just cruel and had no hope.

but now... She lost herself in thoughts again. Should she tell him? Would he accept her as his? There was no question he was kind, but what if he found out that it was him she was talking about? Would he run? Question her? There was only one way to find out, taking a few deep breaths she calmed herself.

"It's you." She said looking up at him. "You're the one."

"Uh." Ryu blinked a couple times owlishly. It was him? The person she was talking about finding? The one she must have spent days if not months searching this city for blindly? He just got here yesterday, how long had she been out on the streets? "Are you sure it's me? I mean there's like seven billion other people on the planet not including me." He said awkwardly unconsciously rubbing the back of his head. A nervous habit he picked up a long time ago or when his patience was running thin. He struggled to grasp the situation for a moment before just remaining silent, perhaps she'd divulge further.

"I'm positive." She said without any hesitation and her eyes showed she stood firm with her decision. She knew this was the one, him, her Ashikabi that she'd spend now and forever with. There was no questions it simply was, it was reality. "I'm positive it's you, there maybe seven billion other people but I don't care about them. I care about you, you." She found that she raising her voice in trepidation and nervousness and quickly toned it down a few notches.

Ryu was slack jawed at the revelation. So what? Did she have a crush on him? Did she want to have intercourse, get married, have children? The last two made him shudder, he wasn't in a hurry to have kids and he was too young to get married, he was only twenty years old! But, this woman wasn't lying. "So it's me?" He asked, she gave a steady nod. "And what am I exactly?"

Here goes nothing.

"You're my Ashikabi." She replied with a hint of hesitation.

"Ashi-what now?" He questioned staring at her quizzically. "Is that the name of a video game or something?" He smoothed out the wrinkles in his shirt as he lost himself in his thoughts. _What's an Ashikabi?_

"Ashikabi." She retorted. "It's the person that I will spend my entire life with." She explained further.

"So like marriage?"

"No." She shook her head. "It's more than marriage. An Ashikabi is our soul mate. They're the ones that we search out to quell the burning in our bodies and hearts. And to help make us stronger."

_Soul mate? _Ryu asked himself, that sounded a lot like marriage. And one hundred percent of divorces started from marriage, funny thing. Was that why Johnny was still such a pervert? He stared at her for a while reading her expression but it didn't change at all. He took a deep breath letting it out slowly as he rested his back on the chair. "You're serious aren't you?" Ikki gave a polite nod. "So, you said you need an Ashikabi. Which is me? So what are you then?"

No turning back now.

"I am a Sekirei, number 19 Ikki the dual kodachi wielder." She said proud of her name and title.

"Why do you call yourself 19?" Ryu asked slightly confused, he was merely joking when he thought of calling her that. People had names, they weren't grouped in numbers.

"I am the nineteenth Sekirei." She replied.

"I see." Ryu looked towards the window watching the sun's rays dance around the living room. "Ikki's fine. No number nineteen just Ikki." He said a little hastily still not sure what exactly was going on. "What's a Sekirei? A bird?"

She gave a nod in response to the first statement. "I guess, Sekirei can translate into bird. But no, Sekirei... We are like you humans except we're stronger, faster, more durable, and most of us have special powers." She answered.

_Special powers... _Ryu drew his lips into a thin line. That sounded exciting, truly a fight worth venturing toward. However this only added some truth if not much to what Johnny said before over the phone. Ryu calmed himself stretching his senses out, he looked at Ikki for a moment before retracting them. _So she's one of them... _He thought. The energy signature was unmistakable, this is one of the several that he felt before. He cleared his throat quietly. "So, what's your special power?"

In a flash Ikki unsheathed her kodachis twirling them around expertly before sheathing them again. To a normal human the movements would be untraceable, nothing but a blur of gleaming blades, but to Ryu he seen each movement in slow motion. There was precision, grace, and ferocity but the technique could use a little more work.

But he couldn't say he wasn't impressed, good thing he calmed her down before otherwise he was sure he'd have a scar on his face. "I am the dual kodachi wielder, that is my specialty." She replied politely staring at him for a moment before clasping her hands together on her lap.

"Yes, I see that..." Ryu said with some alarm but regained his bearings. "So, you're a Sekirei, I'm an Ashikabi, what's next?" He didn't dare to ask but did anyway, his curiosity was always his best and worse trait.

"Let me show you." She said quietly reaching across the table and grabbing the sides of his face with her hands. Ryu flinched slightly not sure what she was going to do or planned to in the next few seconds, nobody really just grabbed his face unless he was fighting them. He slowly calmed down feeling the warmth on the palm of her hands, unconsciously he put both of his hands over hers.

Ikki was grasping at the straws. Being this close was torture, but the best kind of torture if she had to describe. Of course her body was turning into a blazing inferno, her heart was pounding so hard she could feel it in her ears with each rapid pulse, her breaths were becoming short and sharp and her stomach was tied in a bundle of knots again that made her gasp every few seconds.

"Kiss me." She whispered moving closer. Ryu's eyes widened at the request. Kiss her? Could he just kiss her? He clenched his hand slightly, in return Ikki clenched his gently moving closer. _I can't say no. I am her Ashikabi. _He thought closing his eyes and moving closer, now just inches apart he could smell her delicate scent her heart thudding like a drum about to leap from her chest. It was overwhelming.

He inched closer meeting her lips in a kiss. Ikki's eyes tensed for a moment, heat so much heat swarmed through her body causing her to stiffen, slowly it all traveled to the base of her neck and in a brilliant flash of light green lotus wings sprouted stretching to their full length. The delicate appendages folded and conformed to the shape of the wall wrapping around herself and Ryu. He opened one of his eyes catching the breathtaking sight, he almost broke the kiss but Ikki held firm deepening the kiss. He exhaled slowly melting into the kiss that sent a heat wave through his body as well.

After two minutes the two broke the kiss. Ikki panted with a red tinge on her cheeks and Ryu touched his lips where hers just were they tingled making him curl them inwards for a second before touching them again. He turned to Ikki who was contently sitting in her seat staring at him with affection in her indigo orbs. "Wow..." Was all he managed to say.

Ikki smiled warmly, getting out of her chair and walking towards him. Before he could ask what she was doing she wrapped her arms around his neck pressing her cheek to his as he smile grew. "I, Ikki. Will love you now and forever my Ashikabi-sama." She sighed happily nuzzling her nose in the crook of his neck. Ryu awkwardly wrapped his arms around her waist pulling her closer. He didn't know what to make of it but Ikki declared her love to him, honestly he was speechless for the first time in a very long time.

"Oh, Ikki."

"Mhm?"

"You can drop the 'sama'." He said with a light smile. "Ryu or Ryu-kun if you prefer to use the honorific is just fine."

"Okay, Ryu-kun." She let the name roll off her tongue a few times, nodding to herself.

_Sekireis and Ashikabis? _Ryu pondered for a moment before pushing it to the back of his mind, for now he'd enjoy this embrace. Even though she knew him less than a day her love was unconditional, smiling slightly as her warmth consumed him. Was it love? Comfort? Ryu didn't know he was close with several people, but nothing like this. It was a mutual respect and trust with allies, not exactly a romantic thing.

This sounded like a bond of sorts. He squeezed her slightly returning the embrace. They were together forever, so why let her get hurt?

* * *

I don't know if people will ask questions or not. But I'd like to say first he won't have more than 4-6 Sekirei. And six is a lot, to me at least. Who they are, I don't know to be honest.


	3. Joys Of Shopping

Yo, where's all my reviews!? If you couldn't tell, the events going on are not in the canon time, but before. Nobody asked, but I'm sure it would've came up sooner or later. My update schedule is not set in stone I may update daily, weekly, monthly, it depends on what I have going on at that time.

Wilhelm Wigworthy: I wanted to take their relationship slow somewhat. Doesn't make sense to me at least to rush things. It's a bonus that you agree and like it. Thanks for reading.

That's all for this.

* * *

Relaxing. It was one of the simplest things in life, but it was foreign to Ryu. He couldn't remember the last time when he could simply lay down without worrying about something going was always moving, somewhere, he was always active, burying himself in missions or standing guard.

Whether it was an ambush or false alarm something always kept him on his toes, he found himself going without sleep for weeks at a time. When he got to sleep it wasn't on a bed, usually up against a hard rock wall and it was a light sleep at best. Again never knew if Tarkatan were going to ambush or onis would ram sack one of their units. This was something he could get used to.

It was the weekend Saturday to be exact, so Ryu didn't have much to do. Normally he would have just meditated or keep his skills sharp to pass up the time, but there wasn't any room and it was better that he doesn't. He didn't want to deal with the consequences of Ikki or a passerby seeing his abilities. If he really needed a form of entertainment, he might have taken the opportunity to go and sight see. It was hard trying to stay undercover, it didn't help Johnny didn't send anything for schools or anything of the nature, hell he didn't even call back since their conversation when he first arrived. It was hard being responsible.

However, it would be more than awkward to spend the weekend doing nothing now that he had Ikki around... And he couldn't just ignore her. He also wasn't in the mood to deal with people's folly, and he didn't want to deal with creeps ogling her. Leaving her behind, alone in the apartment wasn't very appealing to him either.

So far she was just really cuddly, he wasn't used to people clinging to him. Especially in the same bed he was a virgin, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate her body. He just wasn't used to this type of thing he supposed. Ikki had remained insistent that she slept in the same bed as him, at first he found it odd. There were two rooms after all so why did she want to sleep in the same bed? He didn't bother asking, if she wanted to sleep him he wouldn't argue against it, obviously it meant a lot to her. He made sure to stay clothed in shorts and a t-shirt though, he'd have some modesty.

Ikki had long since left his side, to go into the bathroom and take a steaming shower. He decided to keep his eyes closed and stay in his comfortable state. He had been in the city now for forty eight hours, and so far it was a roller coaster. Between the sights, people, and running into Ikki he had his fill of 'new' now he just wanted to lounge.

He'd have to find something to do with Ikki. No sense in not getting to know her better and do something that would benefit them both. Luckily he had an idea. With that in mind he rose out of bed, going to the closet and lazily putting on a black kimono and black hakama pants.

He left his room right after. He found Ikki sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Hey, Ikki," he queried, getting her attention. He did find it a little strange that simply just talking to her would make her happy, however, she smiled excitement dancing in her eyes at hearing his voice. He supposed it must be because they were 'soul mates' or because he helped her. He wouldn't say it loud but seeing her so happy made his stomach knot up.

"Yes, Ryu-kun?" She took her focus off of the TV, staring at him curiously.

"I'm heading out. Want to go out with me?" He asked. Ikki perked up and smiled.

"Really?" She asked.

"Just going out for shopping..." He said, now becoming aware of the implications of saying what he just said. He shot her a stern look for emphasis. Ikki looked disappointed soon after hearing that, but still smiled.

"I'd love to." She said, standing to her feet. "What are we going to get?" She asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"Some new clothes, so you don't have to wear my stuff. It's way too big." He explained coolly. "I know a place close by where we can go. I walked around half the city so I know where some things are." He didn't want her thinking he where where specifically female clothing stores were because he wanted to.

* * *

"Thank you." Ikki blushed slightly, surprised but very happy that he was still thinking about her so much. She smiled to herself, it seemed their relationship was rapidly growing and improving. Forty five minutes later, staying true to his word, he led her down a street that had several stores located on it, most of them all targeted at women, they walked into one of them. It was a large store, with changing rooms in the back. It was designated in an order, dresses were in one aisle, skirts were in the other, and so on and so forth. It was kind of amusing, no woman he knew would be caught dead in here. They were all battled hardened individuals. An image of Lei Mei wearing a skirt was a funny thing, he couldn't imagine seeing a pivotal person such as her in such demeaning clothing?

"How about this?" Ryu nodded to a rack filled with dresses of all sorts.

"I don't like dresses. Too difficult to move in." She frowned as she eyed them.

"How about just to wear around the house? While your other clothes are being washed?" He raised his eyebrow. Surely she wouldn't walk in the complete nude?

"Never know when we'll have to fight," she countered. "Besides, they're too hard to move in."

"Fighting? You didn't mention that before." Ryu said with a small scowl. "Want to explain?

"I'll explain later." She said firmly, folding her arms.

"Fine, fine." Ryu said with a defeated sigh.

Ikki roamed through the store, continuing to look at the diverse selection of clothing. She split away from Ryu sooner rather than later. She wasn't liking what she was seeing so far in the clothes this store offered. She didn't want to dress like a boy, but she wasn't fond of dresses or skirts, which seemed to be the dominating pair of merchandise for this store. If she was fighting she didn't want her panties flashing to strangers' eyes or tripping over her own feet. She wanted to remain mobile.

But, Ryu did suggest a dress to her. Did he think she'd look prettier in one? Maybe it'd be better just to deal with it for that purpose. With that now in mind, the first thing she stumbled across a green dress that was simple. It certainly wouldn't fumble her, she'd be uncomfortable doing anything besides walking in this dress. Which is why she didn't like dresses in the first place.

Besides being forest green, it would go only a little less than halfway down her thighs. It was sleeveless, it's design was a little revealing with wrinkles from neck the neck going to the hem. There was a trimming, and it was a bit too low cut for her taste, but she supposed it wasn't that bad, but combined with her developed chest and body in general, she'd be showing off. It wasn't fancy or indecent and it was her favorite color, too. It'd be just for around the house, she decided to grab it blushing slightly, she glanced around making sure nobody seen that she'd taken it and headed off to find Ryu, wondering what he'd think. She spotted him a few meters away. She took a breath walking up to him, it was just better to ask.

She held up the dress. "What do you think?" She blinked a couple times realizing she hadn't been the only one to speak. In that same instant Ryu had asked the same question with the same puzzling look from before. She looked and saw he was holding at least six dresses that were Chinese styled, he figured since she wore the styled shirt why not get the dress? They would go just below her her thighs to the middle each one had a black stripe on the front going up the middle. In his other hand he held out an outfit consisting off black shorts, they were slightly longer than her green bloomers she wore now, a leather belt with green studs, a white basic collared t-shirt, and a black vest.

"I thought you didn't want a dress." He asked, looking a little annoyed but also amused. "Good thing I got these."

"I thought... Well, you looked at the dress right from the start." She reasoned looking down at the floor, hiding her small blush.

"You thought I wanted you to wear a dress?" Ryu sighed looking put out.

She looked at him with hopeful eyes, this was it. "Do you think... I'd look prettier in one?" She'd finally bite the dust and ask him to comment on her looks.

"Sure. And this place has dressing rooms if you want to know what you'll like." He said with a small shrug gesturing towards the back of the store where several rooms were. Except this just confused her! Why did he answer, and then say that last part? She nodded to herself, she'd just put the dress on and see what he thought about it then. She'd still get her answer. She got lost in thought again, something she was doing often, did he purposely avoid the question?

Was he just not trying to hurt her feelings?

He lead her to the changing rooms, he stepped back as she went in with the several dresses and outfit. She wondered if she should get the dress still, he did find at least six more, but he found another outfit with shorts. It was different than her current outfit, it wasn't a dress and didn't look bad. She shrugged, he was confusing.

She decided on the dress she picked out first. The one thing she could say she liked about it was that it was easy to put on. She began to strip down until she was just in her underwear, she slipped on the dress a moment later rubbing down the wrinkles unconsciously. She opened the door to the dressing room peeking her head out, before completely stepping out.

"How is this?" She asked shyly, her face turning a shade of red. The dress was light and tight fitting, it felt strange.

Ryu looked at her for a moment. The dress didn't do anything to hide her figure, that could be the reason she was blushing. Her normal attire was loose fitting it must've been weird wearing such a tight dress, but she looked very good, he thought Ikki was cute in the little, green dress.

"It looks.. Very good on you Ikki." He said honestly, feeling his face starting to heat up. He hoped she didn't notice.

"You like it?" She excitedly asked, self consciously she twirled a bang around her finger,

"Yeah, I guess." Ryu turned away rubbing the back of his head awkwardly. "You want to try on the other ones while we're here. Make sure they all fit?" He wisely changed the topic, hoping to end the awkward moment.

"All right!" Ikki beamed. Maybe wearing the dresses wouldn't be so bad. As long as she was indoors and not fighting while she wearing them. She opened the door to the room, stepping in she looked over at the pile of dresses and the one outfit that still puzzled her. Before she took off her dress she there was tall mirror in her dressing room at least eight feet. She realized she looked very sexy in the dress, she looked at her hair idly. It was medium length, going just past her chin. She ruffled her bangs, she'd need to keep an eye on its length, she fought using two kodachis, long hair was a liability in all aspects and scenarios.

She sighed pushing the thoughts away for now and changing into the outfit with shorts. It felt different than the outfit she was used to wearing, but it felt a lot more natural to her than the dress did. However, she didn't bother wearing the vest, she looked herself over in the mirror and had to admit she looked good. With the outfit on, she turned stepping back out wondering what he'd think.

"You look good, Ikki." He smiled. His enthusiasm caught her off guard leaving her wide eyed for a second, she shook herself out of her stupor. She didn't mind it felt good to hear that from him. Really, really good, she brought a hand to her chest, as her heart suddenly began to race.

"Do you like it more than the dress?" She asked quietly, wondering if that had to do with her cheerful response.

"It looks good on you." Ryu said bluntly, shrugging. That didn't help nor tell her much, not at all. She schooled her features, trying to hide the disappointment she felt, telling herself again and again it was a compliment.

"Well, which one should I get then?" She hoped his answer would her pick, or at least narrow it down. But it didn't, not one bit.

"Why not all of them? I have enough money to pay, this place isn't really expensive." Ryu answered with a leveled tone. "Go and change back into your clothes and then we can pay for this." Ikki nodded, going back into the changing room after a few moments she exited wearing her previous outfit, she followed him up to the front desk where a cashier was waiting. On the way her eyes fixed onto something. Hair clips. She made a quick detour to get a closer look. She saw a pack of two flowered shaped clips, she adverted her eyes she wasn't that girly, and they were nearly three times the cost of regular clips. It wasn't that much, but she'd still feel guilty. She was starting to regret losing her MBI card more and more. Damn those lightning twins. She spotted a pack of ten green clips with white stripes going down the middle. Ryu didn't mind paying for those as well, fortunately.

* * *

The walk home was quiet and serene. Neither of the two spoke both lost in their thoughts. Ikki trying to figure Ryu out, and the latter wondering where the fighting subject came up. While, he did have the sneaking feeling she was a fighter, her figure alone spoke volumes. She was built to fight, but one wouldn't guess that from a first glance.

He made a detour to a small store that happened to be in their trajectory. It wasn't one of those giant super grocery stores that had a pharmacy and everything built into it. It was smaller than a grocery store but larger than a convenient store. Ryu was never one to go off of first looks, people were complicated and often times just an enigma altogether. They left a half an hour later with Ryu cradling two large bags almost filled to the top with ingredients for tonight's meal and other snacks.

* * *

Being a Sekirei had its advantages. She could take blows that would crush the bones of the average person. But she was feeling incredibly antsy, two days and she recovered to full health. She was now ready for battle, and by all means she was itching for a fight to show off her skills to Ryu, her dexterity wouldn't be in question. But with all of these attributes she tried in vain to zip up the back of a dress Ryu got her. She was sure she could do it, but the more she tried the more her arms lagged. She sighed for the tenth time, she was stubborn and wanted to wear this.

"You've been in there for a while. Are you alright?" She heard Ryu ask from outside of the bathroom.

"I'm fine!" She frowned realizing she replied a bit too loudly, and there was a slight whine in her voice.

"Well, I'm about to start making dinner. How long are you going to be in there?" Ryu responded.

"I'll be done when I'm done. It's hard!" She almost shouted in annoyance. For once she wished he'd leave her alone and let her concentrate. Stupid dress!

"Trying on a dress?"

"Yeah..." She turned towards the door. "Is that okay?"

"I can help?"

Ryu stared at the bathroom door for a long moment. He wondered if he made her mad her mad, or something worse by asking if her if she wanted help. She wasn't responding and he found himself wondering if he was going to be staring at the door for the remainder of the day. He was certain he didn't mention her weight, he recalled Johnny warning him to NEVER ask a woman how much she weighed. Surprised, he blinked once as the bathroom door opened and Ikki's head popped out.

"Can you...?" She asked, blushing meeting his eyes for a second before looking at her feet.

"Just one thing," he responded calmly.

"What?" Ikki looked up at him slightly confused, slightly curious.

"No questions," he told her in a blunt fashion.

"What?" She blinked a couple of times.

"Don't ask any questions, are we in agreement?" He looked at her with a leveled gaze.

"Umm, all right?" Ikki's face remained frozen in a puzzled expression, she opened the door wider letting him into the bathroom with her.

"Good thing you're tall-"

"Ryu-kun!"

"-So I won't need you to take a seat." He said pacifically, gently grabbing her shoulders and turned her around so she was facing the mirror on the wall. "So let's get started."

"Oh. Okay." She still sounded a little annoyed. But who could blame her that stupid dress wouldn't zip!

"You're lucky I'm tall too." He went on and reached forward, grabbing the zipper, pulling the contraption up smoothly. "And friends that packed too much junk into one place." He said more so to himself sighing quietly.

"Hmm?" Ikki turned back, raising her head to look at him. He gently grabbed the top of her head and forced her to look back into the mirror.

"Be still. Is there a particular dress you want to wear?" He asked scratching the nape of his neck nervously.

"Hmmm," she replied. The moment she uttered that simple sound they got to work.

Ikki was surprised how fast he worked, she jerked her head one way and then to the other as her dress was taken off and set aside. She gasped and sucked in her stomach more than once. He helped her slip into a dark green Chinese styled dress. Which disappointed her, it was so plain, but they weren't done. He helped her slip into a black Chinese styled dress, this one was different. It went to the middle of her thighs and a green stripe went up the the middle of the dress, he zipped all the way up leaving just an inch of two unzipped. He then smoothed out the wrinkles.

"Normally I'd pull on this to make this stay tight. But I wasn't prepared for anything fancy." Ryu said and smoothed out the rest of the wrinkles. "Tell me what you think."

"How did you-"

"What did we agree to?" Ryu knitted his brows slightly, which she could see from the mirror.

"No questions." She sighed, rolling her eyes playfully.

"Yes."

"Can I try on a different one?" She asked, pouting cutely as she looked down at her small collection of dresses.

"Sure." He shrugged slightly, unzipping the zipper on her back.

* * *

"No, the one with two stripes... You can make it tighter, that looks a lot better. Yes, it's perfect!" Over an hour and six dressed later they'd found one that she liked. admittedly, at first she hated that he had do to it for her, but she couldn't complain about the results.

"Finally, my hands feel like lead." Ryu chuckled. Ikki was having more than fun at this point, and even better he seemed to be as well. She smiled to herself, feeling her heart hammering in her chest. The dress she had decided on was a black Chinese styled dress it was sleeveless and designed with intricate vertical wrinkles from neck to hem breaking up the shape a little it was tad bit low cut, and it went halfway down her thighs, she didn't mind wearing it now. The dress had small slits on the sides for more robust movement. It allowed her to walk comfortably and not stiffly.

"You're really good at this," She turned back, smiling at him.

"Yeah, thanks. Just don't tell anyone." The purple haired man sighed quietly, looking away with a small shade of red on his face.

Ikki was a little put out. "Why don't you tell how you can do all this so easily?" She asked, curiously looking at him for a moment. "Don't you trust me? I'm your Sekirei!?"

"Well, to be fair. I'm your Ashikabi and you're keeping secrets from me," he countered a second later shrugging.

"I-I said I'd explain..." She stuttered hastily, looking away from him, unwilling to speak. but also feeling ashamed. "I'm sorry." She said quietly, a light bulb went off above her head getting an idea, she turned around, puckering her lips leaning towards his face, or where it should be. When a burst of heat gathered up at the back of her neck causing her wings to shoot forth in their brilliance. She opened her eyes to see he was staring at her wide eyed. "Forgive me." She smiled inwardly, he plan worked she thought she'd be kissing at the air. Now that would be embarrassing.

"Okay, well I'm going to get dinner started. We can talk about... this then." He turned and exited the bathroom more than confused with her behavior at the moment.

_It actually worked. _She smiled, her plan was a success. She let out a quiet sigh looking back at the mirror. She saw her reflection again she couldn't help but beam a smile.

* * *

Cooking wasn't one of his strengths. He found himself in another predicament where his cooking skills or lack of were going to come back and bite him in the ass. He never really had to cook for himself except for a handful of times and that was just cooking fish he caught not much to it. He wasn't the worse cook, but he certainly couldn't make anything gourmet.

Ryu hummed a tune in his head as he tentatively stirred the contents in the two gallon pot he set on one of the burners. He dully glanced back at Ikki, who was now sitting at the table waiting for the food to be served. She inhaled the aroma that was now wafting through their entire home, a second later her stomach growled quietly in agreement with her thoughts. She took this time to look over her Ashikabi. The purple hair that went to his waist and violet irises were a little off setting, but she herself had indigo eyes and a darker toned indigo hair shrugging that off she traced her eyes over his body. She noticed that there wasn't a shred of fat on him, that his body was made for combat even now the outlines of his muscles were popping from beneath his shirt, if she ever thought of a fighter it'd be him he screamed experience and skill.

She bit her bottom lip, a nervous habit she picked up, as she looked over him fondly. Her eyes dancing with admiration. She was happy her Ashikabi was fit and not some slob, she didn't judge by appearances but she was big on being clean, and sometimes people didn't keep up on their hygiene. Ryu brushed his teeth three times a day plus after a meal, and took a shower twice a day. Once in the morning and once at night. She found herself trying to sneak peeks but chose against it, if Ryu wanted her to come with he'd just say so.

No need to put a strain on their relationship because of her growing curiosity. If he looked like he was chiseled from granite just from wearing clothes, she couldn't begin to imagine how he looked when all of that was off.

She turned a shade of red.

"So," Ryu's voice snapped her back to reality. Ikki shook herself from her daydream, looking at the tall man with a blank expression. "You mentioned you have to fight, why do you have to?" He turned off the burner to the oven letting the contents in the pot shimmer to their prime.

"I have to, it's part of being a Sekirei." She said with an unreadable facial expression. It would seem she just cut off any and all emotion at this moment. "Besides me, there are 107 more in this city at this moment searching long and hard for their Ashikabi so they to can get the strength needed to fight on." She replied looking into his eyes for a moment before turning away looking out the large window in their living room. "I have to fight, and get stronger so we can both win." This time her voice took a serious edge and her eyes cut towards him.

"But why?" Ryu asked with a raised eyebrow, setting a plate of curry in front of Ikki as he prepared his own serving. "Can't we just be together and not fight?" He asked a second later sounding a little annoyed.

He didn't know where he and Ikki stood, for her they were connected on the deepest level, he could feel her emotions leaking into him. Determination, grit, the will to win and fight on. He didn't know what to make of it, because for him this was almost like a fairy tale. He, what many would consider just the average guy finds a smoking hot girl in a box and they now live together. It was a lot to take in.

Ikki shook her head. "No, we have to fight. That's what the Sekirei Plan is." She looked at him, crossing one leg over the other.

"Sekirei Plan?" Ryu questioned a bit quickly, almost spilling his curry from the shock he felt for a second. A plan? That usually entailed people 'not' fighting and if so they would fight their enemies, what she was saying sounded like pitting one of her own against another in death matches. He clenched his fist, he didn't like the sound of that. "Exactly, what is this plan?"

"I don't have all of the details," Ikki admitted. "But, what I know for certain is that I have to fight, and keep on fighting until it's just me and you who remain standing and we can ascend to the higher heavens."

"Woah," Ryu sat down across from her, his head spinning. "Heavens?" He raised his eyebrow, like everyone else he heard of the place. Though it wasn't plural. If he had to say a place that was like what she was saying it'd be where the Elder Gods resided, he'd been there a few times and even now the tranquility of that realm was enough to almost sedate him. Unfortunately, he wasn't there.

Ikki nodded her head slightly. "At the end of the game, the winners get a prize." She said a small smile pulling at her smooth lips. "But I don't care about the prize, I just want to fight. No I need to fight for both of us so we can win, so we can stay together." Her voice was much more serious and the smile was gone replaced by a look of determination.

Losing. He didn't want to ask what happened if she lost. There could be a lot of scenarios, the first if obvious she'd die. Which wasn't comforting at all, even if he was unsure of how to move forward with her he certainly didn't want her to die. There could be the off chance she was taken away, kidnapped, abducted, that was just infuriating to even amuse the thought of that. He seen enough people getting swept away and not being able to do a thing about it. He was already sighing in relief mentally glad he brought his sword and other weapons along with him. He took a few breaths, he was going to bite the bullet. "What happens if you lose?"

Ikki stayed silent for a moment, not meeting his eyes. "If I lose... Then we won't be together anymore..." She paused for a moment shuddering at the thought. "More so, we won't be able to be together since I'd be deactivated." This time she meant his studying gaze for a moment, turning away. Ryu rubbed his chin thoughtfully barely tasting the curry over his swarm of thoughts. It was just a simple act, chew and get energy from it. He didn't miss the fleeting sadness that was in her eyes, body language, it hit home when he felt that same fleeting emotion.

"Deactivated?" He frowned. "What do-"

"Remember what's on the back of my neck?" She asked, looking up at him.

He nodded. "That tattoo..." Recalling the strange orange bird shape with a yin and yang symbol to complete it.

Ikki shook her head with a small smile. "It's not a tattoo. It's my crest. All Sekirei have one." She replied.

"Crest?" Ryu wondered out loud.

"Yes, it's what identifies us as Sekirei," she replied. "When another Sekirei touches it, they chant a phrase and when that's done the Sekirei crest disappears..." She sighed quietly. "When that happens it's the same as dying."

Ryu barely maintained his composure. Is that what Johnny was talking about? It had to be, but it was still too early to make that decision. No he needed more time to sort this out, but he was more concerned about Ikki right now. Clearly, she wasn't lying and he guessed at this point the dress clad Sekirei couldn't lie or wouldn't lie; that was always comforting. A image of Ikki lying on the ground stomach first flashed through his mind, unconsciously he clenched his hands causing the table to let out a small creak from the pressure exerted.

He'd be damned if that happened. A cold, motionless body that was Ikki. Unresponsive and gone from his life. He took a breath releasing his crushing grip on the table. Looks like he was going to be fighting or at the very least watching out for strange things. "I won't let that happen." Ryu said in a firm tone.

Ikki was taken a back by the resolve in his tone. The conviction in his words, he had no doubts about it. She felt that wave of reassurance and she almost lost herself in its embrace. "Thank you for your concern Ryu-kun." Ikki said sincerely this time not wavering when she looked him in the eyes. "I won't lose, I swear it!"

"Well, we're in this together now." Ryu said honestly, leveling a gaze with her. "You won't ever have to worry about being deactivated I won't let anyone touch as much as single hair on your head." He said in a deathly calm voice. Ikki couldn't help but gulp and nod her head. When he said that, there was something there. Dark, it wasn't human she could see and tell that much. But it felt nice having him say things like that to her, their relationship seemed to be growing at a steady rate. Faster than even she thought.

But, she didn't want him fighting _her _battles. She was born for this and she wouldn't run from what life had laid out for her. It was simple enough, fight, win.

There was a small spout of silence where the two didn't say a word to each other and continued to eat. It wasn't an awkward, uncomfortable silence that both of them expected. It was comforting. Normal.

* * *

Is this a filler chapter? Yes and no. Did I spend a little too much time on them shopping and talking, maybe.

Ryu and Ikki are steadily growing closer. Will he have more Sekirei, yes but not a lot. Four to five like I said before. If you people have a suggestion or an idea you _can _leave it in a review or PM. I am curious, but some may not and just want to read further

Ikki fighting, it's going to happen. Next chapter.


	4. Encounter

Thanks for the review! Anybody watch Godzilla? Hard to believe it's just people in costumes on a train set ,up until like 1988!

dkj224: Awesome! I'll remain taking things slow for now. It was my plan, just a bonus you like it.

If someone is wondering about Karasuba, she won't be his Sekirei.

Moving forward.

* * *

It had been three days since he arrived to Shinto Teito. Three days since Johnny called him to ask for assistance. Three days since he met and 'winged' Ikki, he didn't know what winging exactly meant but Ikki was completely devoted to him.

It didn't surprise him to too cocky for his own good, Johnny called him for assistance. A part of him was hoping maybe there would be Tarkatans running a muck in the city and he could have a little exercise.

Sadly, it wasn't the case, instead he called him informing him of strange energy output and signals. At first, he just let go in one ear and out the other, although in this 'world' people were inept and their bodies didn't develop the necessary attributes to use and focus their chi; there were still a few thousand that had these attributes. He figured most likely because they were an Ashikabi.

Then he dropped the bombshell. There was nothing in the records about these 'Sekirei' which let him unnerved. Anything could be found in the records and archives whether it was about the war six years ago, or one a millennia ago the details were always there in full depth.

Raiden had prided himself on watching over this 'world' and the other 'worlds' he was the one more often than not that kept the archives updated constantly adding information. Before him it was his predecessor and so far and so forth.

Grudgingly he took Johnny's words serious and had been waiting for a call from him since. Did it take that long to find college registrations? And why the hell _did he _have to go to college?

Shinto Teito was everything he had come to expect from a large metropolis. Noise, there was noise from the drop of five in the morning that didn't stop until two at night. People were constantly on the move from home to work, to getting their kids, to getting food not always in that order.

Kids ran around in blissful ignorance, their parents scolding them while chasing after them. When the noise finally subsided he'd spend his time staring out at the night sky finding peace in such a simple thing. It was a shame there was so much light pollution in this city, the stars would only triple in appeal if this was a wilderness.

Ikki remained sleeping in the same bed as him. More often then not wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her cheek to his. It was extremely awkward at first, but a part of him enjoyed being so... Close to her. It had been three days since he met her in that box and moved into this place.

It had been quite the roller coaster since that meeting, and it only got more paced when he learned she had to fight. There was no choice, he wouldn't fight her fights for her that would only make her mad, but he'd make sure that she survived them. He wanted to see her skills, test them himself in a sword fight. It'd be interesting from her display a day ago she was very well versed with those kodachis.

He dully remembered it had been three days since he roughed up those thugs. There hadn't been any word of them from the owner which he knew the man wouldn't be shy about pounding on his door asking him to go and take care of it. It was only a matter of time before they came back, people like them would always come back and do the same thing over again even if they got tossed into garbage cans over and over. It was almost like a disease, stupidity and arrogance. And they had too much of both.

* * *

Ryu woke as the early morning rays beamed through the bedroom window. There was a pleasant sensation pressing against his right side, and his cheek felt like it was being nuzzled with a warm pillow. Ryu slowly opened his eyes, groaning as the rays danced across his line of vision. He lazily waved his free hand in front of him, trying to brush away the annoyance.

He turned his head and noticed that Ikki was in her usual spot, hugging his neck gently with her arms and her cheek pressed to his. She had a pleasant smile on her face as she adjusted herself to be comfortable since he moved a few inches.

Ikki was once again dressed in a pair of modest white panties and a white bra having nothing more to wear. The dresses were all either too tight that they'd rip from a little movement or they were hanging in closet. Not that Ryu minded very much, Ikki was a very beautiful and developed woman, and he could definitely appreciate a beautiful woman.

He glanced around his bedroom for a moment. There wasn't a lot in it at the moment. Just the king sized bed, six pillows the owner had been generous enough to set out for them along with the closet, he now noticed a small dresser on the far side of the room for extra clothing. Besides all of that the room was pretty much empty, Ryu pondered for a moment Ikki needed proper sleepwear and with a lack of anything that screamed luxury in this room he and Ikki would need to head out shopping again in the near future.

Hopefully it wouldn't take too long.

He closed his eyes again, trying to ignore the rays that kept dancing in front of his eyes. He pondered on what to make for breakfast, the curry was all gone not even a scrap remained of it. It seemed that Sekirei had ferocious appetites, at least he wouldn't need to worry about stuffing it away. It was also a plus that he wasn't the only one that inhaled his food. There were fourths and sixths before he knew it the two of them were asleep in his room. Incredible what a full stomach could do to you. His stomach growled in complaint, he was definitely hungry. Something he was about to quell, time to cook some bacon and eggs.

But first he had to wake up Ikki.

"Ikki, it's time to wake up." He said quietly poking her on the cheek a couple times.

"Hmm?" She murmured drowsily as she slowly started waking up. She blinked, bringing her hands up to her eyes rubbing the sleepiness from them as she yawned quietly. It was adorable to watch, and Ryu couldn't help but smile at it.

He seriously hoped his hands or fingers didn't do too much wandering over night. Hopefully none at all, that would be a little hard to try explaining. It'd be worse since Ikki knew exactly what he had been doing, and was certain she'd welcome it.

"Good morning Ikki, did you rest well?" Ryu wisely changed the directions of his thoughts towards something else, something that wasn't so erotic than thoughts on foreplay.

Ikki righted herself in a seated position beside Ryu. "Mhm. I slept like a baby." She said tiredly but there was a cheerful undertone to her voice. A look of happiness crossed Ikki's face. "I had the most amazing dreams of us together."

Ryu swallowed the lump that in his throat. This wasn't a territory he wanted to stray into at the moment, especially considering she was half naked in front of him. It was something he was almost trying get Ikki's attention away from. "You can tell me about it later during breakfast." Ryu said quickly. He didn't want Ikki divulging further, or her attempting anything right now.

"All right. It felt really good, if that's the way all Ashikabi make their Sekirei feel then it should be encouraged." Ikki grabbed the sides of his face in her hands giving them a gentle squeeze. Ryu felt his cheeks heat up, and he became instantly hard at their close proximity. It seemed his body didn't care about his mental objections. "My heart was racing."

Ryu was sure that her heart was racing for all the obvious reasons. But, he really didn't feeling crossing this bridge at the moment. He needed to change the subject again, and fast, another symphony of growls gave him the perfect solution. "You can tell me all about it later Okay? For now just go take a shower or bath and clean up. I'll start cooking breakfast."

Ikki yawned widely rubbing her eyes again, beaming at him with excitement dancing in her eyes. Her stomach or his growled loudly again. "Okay!" She said tiredly but still held excitement as she stood to her feet. She grabbed one of her dresses to wear around the house and strode out the door. Ikki was very devoted, but more so stayed up on cleanliness, washing up was a good way to distract her at the very least from her current thoughts.

Ryu took a little longer to get ready. He could have followed after Ikki quickly, but he wasn't in any rush. It wasn't like he was in Outworld where every moment, every waking second counted, he could savor things now. And, thankfully, no trouble has arisen lately, or yesterday while they were out. Maybe they wouldn't run into trouble, and the off chance they happened to they were all disconnected one-offs that didn't add up to impending doom.

Hopefully they wouldn't fight at all.

He yawned as he stepped into the hallway, hearing the water going on the other side of the bathroom door. "Should get at it." He said as he walked into the kitchen that was literally right across from the living room. He pulled the fridge door open getting the ingredients out.

He got to work turning on two burners, and setting a pan on each of them. _Let's see if I got still. _He thought as he cracked an egg, several of them. He glanced at the liquid on his fingers for a moment before wiping it off with paper towel. The sound of sizzling flooded his ears and the smell of food cooking began to waft into and through the walls. He sigh with content, this wasn't so bad he supposed. Sitting here cooking, a beautiful woman at his side currently in the shower. He glanced to the side hearing the water still pouring into the tub.

It felt a lot like marriage, but she Ikki was firm that it was more than just that.

* * *

"Ryu-kun?" Ikki questioned as she strode out the hallway in nothing except a blue towel. He opened his mouth to speak but lost any train of thought he had, no matter what seeing her like this was a little... Overwhelming. Ikki had a curious and confused look on her face, she sniffed the air intently. "What are you cooking?" She asked walking towards him to see first hand.

"Just some bacon and eggs." He answered keeping his eyes focused on the growing piles of food. "Ikki..." He trailed off again, taking in her appearance. Her eyes began to follow his. "Oh!" She said with a small blush on her face as she turned and ran towards her room.

Ryu just chuckled lightly and shook his head slightly. Yes, staying here was definitely the best idea he'd ever had. A lot better than trying to play that prank on Jade and pinning it on Johnny, who knew that woman was so scary with that staff. Hitting him on the ass hard enough to leave welts was not cool or fair. If Johnny were here he'd have already taken advantage of the situation by now.

If he survived the beating he gave him that is.

Speaking of that man, he had yet to call him again to inform him of anything new. This was beginning to weigh heavily on his mind.

"Are you worried?" Ikki's voice brought him out of his trance of thought. He glanced to the side taking her in. She wore a green Chinese styled dress with a strike going down the middle that was a light shade of green with a thin white stripe in the middle of that one. He would've been worried about a blush staining his face, but he was a little... Curious.

"Why do you ask?" He turned his attention back to the food, flipping the popping bacon over muttering a string of curses in a different language after the grease flew on his arm. Ignoring the substance of his ire he waited for Ikki to answer. Woman in question stood there analyzing him for a moment before taking a seat on a chair a few inches away from him.

She knew this much about Ryu. He always had to stay in control. He controlled his emotions, answers, thoughts. It made her a little nervous, normally humans were such emotional creatures, was he capable of actually feeling? She'd tread lightly, obviously he was hiding something. "I noticed you were spacing out for about five minutes. It couldn't have been a day dream." She folded one leg over the other, making herself comfortable.

Ryu sighed quietly, casting a quick glance at her but remained silent. He thought for a second that she could read his mind, perhaps see into his mind, his emotions. He shook that thought off, he didn't want that nobody should know _everything _about the other. "It's all just... So much to process. I mean..." He looked at her for a long moment.

Never in his life had he met a woman like Ikki. Kitana was sexy by all means, but she was over ten thousand years old, though she didn't look it. That was just too much of a gap for Ryu, there was Jade but she never was the romantic type, she was all about duty and carrying out orders. Emotions and relationships would only hinder her judgement when it counted the most. Lei Mei had a big heart, but it wasn't for him, he didn't know who it was for. It seemed the women in his life were close but seemed so far away in different aspects.

But there was something about Ikki that made him want to get closer. It was more than just her looks it was the way she talked, how she was studying him and reading his emotions and thoughts. It was unnerving but inviting. He always kept up barriers, and was now.

"... We're really together, now, and forever." He said quietly. That was just in fairy tales where the man and woman get to live the rest of their lives out in peace, have a few kids, settle down in a nice quiet home somewhere in nature. It was harmonious. But that was only fairy tales, he seen enough bloodshed and dead bodies strewn across a landscape to know happy endings were just a load of bull. "I'm just not sure what to think of this, about this whole thing."

Ikki looked thoughtful, she remained silent listening to him speak attentively. She could say they were bonded, but she was certain he knew that, she could explain what she knew of the plan that she didn't mention before, though it wasn't important. Just about MBI and that he can wing more Sekirei. But she didn't want him to do that, wasn't she good enough? But she'd concede with his wishes in the end. She was his _first _Sekirei, surely he'd never just forget about her.

"I know," she said in a soothing voice, walking behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist, pressing her head into his back. "It's all confusing for me too. I don't have a lot of information, and what I do have wouldn't help much." She let out a quiet breath, feeling shame for a moment. "But, you helped me, fed me, gave me a home, a bed, clothes." She released him turning him around so he was facing her. "I know what I want, what my heart wants. And that's to be with you, whether it's here or not doesn't matter just as long as I'm with you." She wrapped him in a hug resting her head on his chest.

She didn't know if this was a good move. There was a chance he could become overloaded with emotions, nothing positive or negative in general just too much feelings at one time. He could shut down and isolate himself, she didn't want that, but what else could she do besides verbally tell him her devotion and what she felt. It was the best course of action even if it could turn out for the worse.

Ryu set his spatula down, the burners now on a shimmering temperature. He was shocked, awe struck by her statement, numbly he returned her hug. He could feel the wave of love, affection, pulsing through him from their bond. It felt weird, his stomach turned into knots and sweat began to form on his palms. All of it was unconditional, endearing, it touched him on the deepest level. Whether they were here or on the streets she'd never leave his side, not even for a second. He only experienced that depth of loyalty with his comrades back on the battlefield when explosions were going off inches away from him making his ears ring and his blood pump with adrenaline.

"Ikki, I-I-"

"Shhh," she touched his lips with her finger silencing him, as she beamed a loving smile at him. "It's okay, I know." She said quietly giving him a tight squeeze, making sure to send a wave of affection and assurance through their link. Once she was sure she did, she released him retreating back to her seat in the chair.

"Why'd you move?"

She pointed at the oven, amusement dancing in her eyes, and if it helped there was a small amused smirk gracing her face. "Watch the food, you might burn the place down." She said teasingly, crossing one leg on top of the other moving her foot rhythmically.

Ryu scowled at her, but there was no anger or hostility behind it. Ikki rolled her eyes playfully ruffling out the wrinkles in her dress. Ryu couldn't help but smile, chuckling quietly to himself as he worked another serving of eggs scrambling them to perfection. He glanced back at Ikki, who was still straightening out her dress, then back at the oven his smile grew. He felt a lot better, much better. How Ikki did it he couldn't guess, but there was something very beautiful about her that went beyond her body.

* * *

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"But, we just went shopping yesterday. Do we need to go again today?"

Ikki walked side by side with Ryu on a sidewalk in a more rural area. They had been walking for the past forty five minutes and there was no sign of stopping. Ikki, herself was a little confused as to why they were going shopping again, not that she minded he was paying so much attention to her. Hopefully she wouldn't need to get anymore dresses she was at her limit with those, and skirts well that was out of the question. "Yeah, but you can't just sleep in your undergarments." Ryu answered looking at her with a blank expression on his face, "have to retain some modesty."

"Would you prefer if I don't wear anything at all to bed?" Ikki asked half serious, half teasing.

"Well, I..." He trailed off, looking away for a moment. The thought of a naked Ikki was much too enticing. In time he was sure that she'd be... Naked completely in the nude, but for now it was better to get a supply of clothes.

"Or should I take off my bra and or panties instead?" She asked curiously.

"You're enjoying this aren't you?" He asked with a deadpan expression.

"Mmm, just a little."

Ryu let out a soft chuckle shaking his head. "Well, it'd be good to get some more clothes. And maybe some more... Ehm, undergarments." He cleared his throat gently.

"I guess I could use more bras and panties." Ikki nodded her head in affirmation, putting a finger to her chin. "Do you care what kind I get?" She tilted her head looking up at hm cutely.

"Ahh..." He paused, contemplating an answer. He wasn't an expert on fashion by any means his own outfit spoke that already. It was held firm when Sonya said he had a bad taste in kimonos. Sometimes it sucked being so young surrounded by older people, it made for embarrassing moments. He had no idea what a woman searched for in her clothes, he just got dresses the other day since that was a basic thing. So he thought at least. "No, no. Just as long as it covers it's fine." He said lamely.

Ikki nodded slightly. This was kind of fun, flustering her calm and collected Ashikabi. It wasn't exactly romantic or intimate, but it was still something. A quirk perhaps. Either way she didn't care. "I should be able to manage then." She said with a quiet sigh feigning boredom.

Ryu raised an eyebrow at her. What was did that mean exactly.

* * *

It was an experience. Ryu was always one big on privacy even as a child he wanted his own space to dwell on his thoughts. It gave him a sense of peace being alone for hours at a time thinking or staring blankly at a wall. Fortunately, most of his time went into training so there was never a boring moment. Not that there would be when the egomaniac and pervert Johnny was roaming around trying to put the moves on Sonya.

It was funny to see him get tossed twenty feet away.

Undergarment shopping was something he never thought he'd live to do. At least in the women's section of a store, truth was there was entirely too much there and he didn't have the patience to wait for someone to try on sixty different outfits and then choose none of them. That would make him scream to the world and pull out his hair. Why were women so confusing?

Ikki however was different. And not just being a Sekirei. It seemed she wasn't so enthralled about the experience of shopping again, it surprised him but he wasn't going to complain. If she wanted to make it quick by all means she could.

What he didn't expect was Ikki dragging him into the changing room with her. The store they settled on was a lot bigger than the previous one, and of course the changing rooms were at least twice as big and had a separate room in them with a curtain where the person could go and change. There were a few chairs set up in front of the opening so whoever was helping the person could see a full view.

Ryu wasn't exactly a prude, but Ikki seemed to get more and more attractive. He found himself looking away for a second when she came out clad in bra and panties that did nothing but accentuate her figure. She noticed this and took advantage of it much to his chagrin. It went from bra and panties to corsets and frilly night gowns that didn't cover her at all. The corsets were extremely tight, and since she deemed him as her helper he had the privilege to lace he corsets all the way up to the top, Ikki was firm on it being laced all the way up.

Not that he would complain about seeing and helping her get dressed and undressed, it just confused him as to why she wanted a corset, more than once she gasped and sucked in her stomach to accommodate the article of clothing.

"Have enough?" Ryu asked with a raised eyebrow.

"This should be enough," Ikki nodded looking up at him.

"All right, go and change back. I'll pay for these." He gestured to the clothes Ikki picked out and ones that he agreed looked good on her. Ikki gave a small nod walking back through the curtain stripping down to nothing while Ryu headed for the front desk.

A few seconds later Ikki came walking up to him clad in her regular clothes. Ryu tried to get her to reconsider her choice so they didn't attract too much attention but Ikki wasn't budging. Her explanation was simple just like before, never know when we'll have to fight and those clothes were too tight.

* * *

They began their journey back to their home. Ryu with her arms crossed over his chest, the bags linked on said arms. It was another noisy day, cars screeched and people chattered away but amidst all of this there was a sense of peace that he began to soak in. But, just as he began to drink in the peace the unexpected happened.

"Ryu-kun!" Ikki exclaimed moving to push him out of the way but he was already moving, grabbing a hold of her wrist and pulling her along. A moment later a strange spear flashed by whittling through the air. He and Ikki both turned to see an interesting pair behind them. One was a boy with a slim build and glasses about two years younger than Ryu, and the other was a girl who wielding the deadly spear. She had long, light brown hair that went to the middle of her back. She wore a tight, white fitting dress with a gap on her naval to expose her developed chest.

"Be careful you might give me the wrong idea. Who the hell are you anyways? Another Sekirei." He scowled. He was not interested in a fight he just wanted to get home. It didn't make him feel any better knowing one Sekirei could only walk away from this. Maybe he wasn't _as_ close to Ikki as the girl would like, but he would be more than upset if she was terminated.

"You're lucky to have such an observant Sekirei. No matter, we crushed the last two, you'll be no different. Nanami, you know what to do."

"Don't get too cocky," Ikki said narrowing her eyes dangerously.

"It is true. I've won all my other fights by a large margin." Nanami replied. She didn't sound like she was boasting and being cocky, but simply stating a fact or maybe she was giving Ikki a warning. She didn't appear to share the same arrogance her Ashikabi did.

"Don't get too cocky," Ikki repeated as she unsheathed her kodachis right after she spoke. She narrowed her eyes dangerously again staring down the Sekirei in front of her.

"Enough talking. Nanami, crush her!" The glasses clad man ordered. Nanami obeyed and lunged forward with her spear, aiming for Ikki's heart. Ikki dodged around it, then put on a burst of speed trying to move in close where the spear couldn't be swung or thrust at her. However, Nanami retracted her weapon quickly and blocked the side slash, before slashing at her forcing the indigo Sekirei back where she started. Nanami quickly advanced and used shorter, faster jabs to keep Ikki on the defensive.

Ryu hadn't seen much of Ikki's skills. He got to skip the part where Ikki was threatened. After he winged her and brought her to their current home, she showed him just a little of those skills. He watched intensely, unconsciously gritting his teeth watching Ikki have to dodge deadly stabs.

* * *

Ikki knew she couldn't stay on the defensive forever. She needed to find a way to counter the spear or be bludgeoned by the spear head. There had to be a way. Nanami lunged forward again thrusting the spear at her, she parried pulling her stomach away from the blade but also swung downward with one of her swords slamming the flat side of the spear and knocking it down toward the cement. She swung her arm forward holding the kodachi with an overhand grip, Nanami jumped back deftly evading the follow up attack. Pressuring Ikki she lunged forward again, except; Ikki blocked the attack with her blades.

It was painfully apparent that the taller, athletically figured Ikki was stronger than Nanami. The spear wielding Sekirei's arms were almost hyper extended, pulling with all the strength she could muster in vain to pull her weapon back. But it wasn't any use, The strange spearhead had a curve on the far inside 'pocket' Ikki hadn't noticed until she lodged her blade in it. Nanami jerked again.

Ikki was glad to let her have it.

The taller Sekirei pushed the spear back towards Nanami, burying the butt of it into her stomach. She gasped, doubling over losing her grip on the weapon loosened, losing it to Ikki. She seen stars at the butt of her spear slammed into her jaw, causing her teeth to snap down on her tongue.. Ikki pressed the attack grabbing the spear with one hand bringing it down across her face, knocking the speak Sekirei off balance. Ikki took the brief pause, setting her feet, ramming the butt of the spear into her gut again, with a grunt she lifted the other Sekirei off of her feet, tossing her up and over her head, Nanami landed hard on the ground several inches behind Ikki.

Ikki slowly turned to face her downed opponent. She wondered how this girl had defeated two other Sekirei. She grabbed the prone spear, stabbing down at Nanami, but she rolled away, quickly getting back to her feet. The increased endurance of a Sekirei on display. However it was Nanami who was now pressed on the defensive, running from the dual blades.

The only problem, Ikki couldn't get within cutting range of Nanami. A spear didn't seem like a complicated weapon to overcome, But Nanami was hard pressed, she repeatedly thrust jabs out keeping her at a distance. She was successfully widening the gap between them, she didn't want to stop pressing her attack, lest Nanami takes advantage of that lapse in time. But she couldn't keep staying on the defensive and tire out, she needed to find a way to immobilize that spear without having to grab it again.

Ikki dodged around the next stab and moved in from the side bringing one sword up. Nanami copied what she did, pulling her spear back and swiping it through the air, Ikki brought both swords up blocking the attack. This turned out to be the wrong thing to do, she increased her grip on the spear and started pushing forward. Ikki pushed back gaining ground, but was kicked in the stomach she suppressed a gasp glaring up at her, Nanami took one hand off of the spear to punch Ikki in the face. The attack stunning her for a short moment, but that's all the time Nanami needed to regroup.

Ikki shook the stars from her vision, regaining her wits just in time to see she was now hard pressed against the spear again, and evaded. But it wasn't fast enough, Nanami swiped the spear through the air again cutting her across the stomach. She clutched at the shallow wounds on her stomach and glared at Nanami. At least she didn't cut her face the part of her that Ryu would see the most.

"That's it!" She growled, frowning. She was done with playing it safe and staying back, it wasn't really her style. Now it was time to be aggressive. She put on a burst of speed, charging right at Nanami, deftly flipping over the jab, this time she didn't have time to react, Ikki was already well in range. Eyes narrowed with intensity and killing intent. Ikki rammed the butt of end of her handle into Nanami's gut.

Nanami doubled over in pain, Ikki slashed across the back of her waist, with a cry Nanami shot upright out of reflex from the pain. Ikki twisted around another spear jab, swinging her other arm as fast as she could, cutting her blade across Nanami's stomach. The spear wielding girl stumbled back clutching the fresh wound on her stomach.

Ikki's eyes fell on her spear. She had an idea of what would win this fight without her resorting to using the spear itself or diving into range. Ikki was ready to put an end to this. She tightened her grip on her swords' handles setting herself into a stance. Nanami weakly raised her spear, but Ikki just kept her eyes fixated on her. It all happened so fast. Nanami charged forward at lightning speeds thrusting her spear forward, at the last second Ikki deftly dodged around, the spear head slammed through a brick wall lodging itself in there. Nanami pulled desperately, but Ikki had other ideas faster than you could blink she brought her sword down severing the spear head from the shaft of the spear itself, she spun a quarter turn slashing Nanami across the solarplexus.

She fell to the ground, trying to roll away. But Ikki pounced on her, pinning the now weaponless Sekirei on the ground. She took the tip of her sword, cutting through the back of her dress, not caring that she wasn't just cutting into cloth but flesh as well. Nanami let out a cry of pain, but Ikki didn't couldn't be sentimental. If their roles were reversed Nanami would do without any hesitation.

Nanami gasped, eyes widening like saucers as Ikki put a finger on the seal. Out of extreme pain or fear of her termination didn't matter to Ikki. She won.

"My blades clear a path, cut through the darkness that shrouds my Ashikabi." She chanted quietly, watching as Nanami's seal began to fade away. Game over.

"No way! No! No! What the hell!?" Nanami's Ashikabi stared in shock and disbelief as she lost. Ikki smiled, looking over at him. What happened to all of that confidence from before.

"What's wrong? I thought you were going to crush me?" She smiled again, she felt pretty good at the moment. Aside from a few cuts and scrapes she dominated the fight."

"H-How!? How? Nanami.. Th-"

"Shut up, !" Ryu growled with a murderous glare, contempt in his eyes. The other Ashikabi shrunk down in fear from the killing intent he radiated. For all his posturing and talk, he clearly wasn't anything impressive. And was a coward to boot.

Ikki sheathed her swords, waiting somewhat patiently, until she could hear the distortion of air as the helicopters approached. She turned, limping over toward Ryu, gingerly clutching the wound on her stomach. "Are you okay, Ikki?" Ryu asked.

"I'll be fine Ryu-kun." Ikki answered with a smile. He wanted to take her word for it, his eyebrows knitted together in worry however, even as she clutched the wound, blood was slowly but surely trickling out from between her fingers. It was hard to tell if it was worse than it appeared.

"Yeah, but you're bleeding." Ryu sighed. He gritted his teeth a little at the sight. He'd been in several scuffles, the worse he ever got was broken bones, and a concussion.

"Oh?" Ikki looked down at her blood covered hand. "It'll probably stop soon though."

"That's not really comforting, Ikki," he replied, scolding her lightly. He pursed his lips as he lost himself in thought. He wasn't sure which way to go about this. The cut appeared shallow and wouldn't need stitches, in his opinion, but it was long. Maybe he'd just have to bandage it up, when he found a way how. "Let's just head home. I'll try to patch you up and then get dinner started." He paused."That was impressive back there drawing her in so she lodged her spear in that wall.

"Thank you." Ikki said, feeling her cheeks heat up from the compliment on her fight, but smiled still.

* * *

Well, there's a fight for you. Yes, I spent time writing about them shopping. It's Sekirei there's etchy stuff, so try to understand. No questions so I guess that's it.


	5. Recovering

It's a sad day for wrestling fans. Yesterday the Undertaker lost. 21-1.

* * *

Ikki felt weird and slight trepidation as they walked back to their home. She wasn't lightheaded from blood loss, the cut was shallow. As she predicted the flow of blood had stopped almost completely before they made it back. The biggest issue they had would be witnesses. However luckily for them it was late and on top of that it was cold, very few people if any were out walking the streets.

No, the reason why she felt so weird and anxious was becoming more pressing as they arrived to their home and went inside. Thankfully, there was nobody out and about around the apartment complex that made things a lot smoother. If he was going to patch her up wouldn't she need to take her top off? Somehow the changing room and towel incident didn't seem so embarrassing anymore. Maybe that wasn't the word for it, it didn't seem so 'close' as she thought now that she thought about it. It seemed they had come far, but she couldn't shake the distant feeling she was getting from him.

Ryu stood in the hallway gesturing to the bathroom. "Go and wash it off gently." He told her calmly heading towards him room a second later. So maybe Johnny was right about what he said, but why didn't that insufferable man bother to give him a call back?

"I thought you were going to help me?" She whined playfully. To hell with embarrassment, she still wanted him to touch her. Her cheeks, heated up from her thoughts. She was just a mess of jumbled up feelings right now, and the pain certainly wasn't helping.

"I'll be there in a moment. Now go before it gets infected or the blood gets too dry." He said a little more forcefully. He wasn't a medical expert, but he knew the basics well enough that's why he was moving fast.

"Oh. Okay." She said, hurrying off to the bathroom. She shut the door, grabbing the bottom of her shirt she swiftly took off the now ruined shirt, taking the chance to look down at her wound. It looked a lot worse than it was for being such a shallow cut, it even scared to a little. It almost stretched from one side of her abdomen to the other, and there was a lot of dried blood sticking to her skin making it look even more gruesome. It was even worse with her hands as there was one cut spreading across her palms, she hardly noticed during the fight.

This was going to suck.

Pain. Pain.

She gritted her teeth, letting out a painful hiss as she started washing her hands first. It stung horribly she began to kick herself for not thinking of a batter strategy ahead of time to avoid this, too late now though. It took a while to completely clean up her hands but finally they were both clean she then moved onto the wound on her stomach. It stung horribly on every inch of her flesh, making her grimace and suck her stomach in every few seconds. Finally it was clean, though the washing made it start stared bleeding again, but it wasn't anything alarming and as soon as it started it stopped. Being a Sekirei had its benefits.

She had no time to admire her work, not that it was particularly pleasing staring at her at her wound, right as she was finished the door cracked open and Ryu's hand stuck through with a large t-shirt in his grasp, his eyes peeking around a moment later.

"Put this on," he instructed from the other side of the door. Ikki gave a small nod, obeying. Once it was on he entered the bathroom with a small bottle of liquid and wash cloth.

"Why do I have to wear this?" She asked, curious.

"To protect your dignity, just pull it up and tie it into a knot." Ryu told her calmly, making motions with his hand to help clarify what he expected her to do. He hoped he didn't come off as condescending. She complied tying it into a bundle, for once she was happy she was so tall otherwise she'd look ridiculous since the shirt was so baggy.

She felt a mix of feelings. On one hand she felt more calm, knowing she wouldn't be standing there with just a bra to cover her breasts, but at the same time a part of her had been hoping to let him 'look' at her. A smaller part of her was frustrated why did it matter now but not when she was asleep? She wondered if he'd even take advantage of it. Did he even think of her that way? He was kind and caring, but it seemed more like out of responsibility.

She was snapped from her thoughts as she bit down on her lip to keep herself from groaning loudly in pain. He'd put something on her wound that stung a million times worse than water, she could already feel it going into every part of the cut. Whatever it was she hated it. "I'm not sure what to do now," he said as he stopped applying the stinging liquid. "Bandages wouldn't work that well, I'll just have to try wrapping something around you. I don't what I have though." He was about ready to leave when he spotted the cut on her hands. "Ikki."

"I may have cut my hands too..." She admitted sheepishly. "It must've happened when I grabbed the spear."

He sighed quietly, shaking his head. "Let me see your hands." Ikki obeyed extending her arms forward, she gritted her teeth as he carefully poured the liquid into her cuts. She bit down on her lip holding back a cry of pain, this stung worse than her stomach if that was even possible.

In the end. It turned out she would have to wait while he ran out to get better medical supplies. She began to feel increasingly guilty because he had already bought a lot, figuring she could use 'regular' clothes. Looks like he was going to be adding medical supplies to that and a lot at that. She sighed quietly, she knew he didn't have that money. She would've clenched her hands if they weren't cut, she wished she'd never encountered those two snaky lightning twins and lose her card while running.

However, guilt aside. She got the joy of experiencing him wrapping long white bandages around her waist. She got to feel his fingertips brush against her exposed midsection. She knew she had to be blushing fiercely, she only hoped he didn't take notice. Every so often she'd shiver at his touch which was surprisingly delicate especially when he began to bandage her hands. When he was finally finished she was more than tempted to grab him and hold onto him saying, not ready for him to leave. It wasn't a fear that he'd go far, and she could always follow him around like a puppy. But she wanted to be closer to him. So much closer.

She didn't even try for it in the end. For all her desires she could still feel the barrier Ryu was keeping up. But there were cracks forming in that barrier. She debated whether or not to keep pushing, surely she could break that barrier down. But it didn't feel right for her to do such a thing, she'd just wait for him to open himself up more.

* * *

Dinner was quiet as usual. Ryu learned that Ikki was quiet, kind, and intelligent. She made a good conversationalist and she didn't seem like the 'mouthy' type. She let her actions do the talking instead and was soft spoken. In short she was a pleasure to be around, she was helpful and didn't complain or yell, but he was still confused with their relationship.

Unfortunately he got to witness those actions. True she beat that other Sekirei, but the price it came it was a little startling. He had to bandage both of her hands and her midsection, she'd be out of commission for a while. A few days at the very least, already her Sekirei healing was doing its work.

Why was he getting so worried about it? Since when did a little blood get under his stomach? He seen his fair share and seen a lot worse. One such example was when he had to hold off Kintaro which resulted in him getting broken ribs and a fractured arm. Thankfully that was all he received from that brute in that fight. Everyone knows that he in particular was bloodthirsty and jumped at the chance to kill and please his _master_ as he so fondly called the twisted emperor.

He knew why. Ikki was beginning to grow on him, but he was still just confused on how he should treat her. Respectful and kind was a given, but to be more, to want more... Did Ikki want or have those kind of feelings for him? She wasn't exactly human, so admittedly he didn't quite understand or know how to treat her aside from being generous and helpful.

"Damn it... Damn... No..." Ikki accidentally crushed another pair of chopsticks she was holding out of sheer frustration. It surprised Ryu she could do even that in all honesty, those were some nasty cuts, because of that her hands ached disallowing her the dexterity required to eat. Sighing, she stood up and grabbed another pair and began to try again. Five minutes passed. No... Damn... Grr.." She cursed under her breath every time her hands slipped or she dropped a piece of food. This was getting ridiculous.

"If you break too many of these we'll run out, even if they are cheap." Ryu said with a quiet sigh. He could feel for the girl. She had only broken one pair so far, however at the rate she was going there would be another broken pair following shortly maybe three.

"I'm sorry... But..." She glared at the small, wooden utensils that were proving to be cause of her ire. She tried again only to drop another piece of food. Ryu moved his chair so he was seated next to her and then gently took the chopsticks out of her grasp. Ikki blinked owlishly in surprise and looked up at him with a tilted head. Was he upset? No? That wouldn't explain why he moved his chair.

"What are you doing, Ryu-kun?" She asked the obvious question.

"Just this one time." Ryu told her calmly with a straight face.

"What?"

"One time only." He repeated this time with a small impatient scowl.

"B-But," Ikki blushed, realizing he was offering to feed her. "I can eat my own!" She complained. His response was a deeper scowl that told her had had no faith in that statement. "Okay, fine. Just this one time." She closed her eyes, opening her mouth in anticipation. After a few moments she realized this was actually nice, her Ashikabi feeding her. It felt so... Intimate. In fact if he hadn't made it clear that this was a one time thing she probably would have "accidentally" slammed her hands in a door once they felt better or cut them again. Okay... She wouldn't but she'd be very tempted.

* * *

Before Ikki knew it, it had been four days that passed by. She found herself curious and lost in her thoughts once again. Why did he feel so close yet so far away? It was a strange feeling, and it nagged her. She hated it. She debated whether or not to ask him directly, but there was no reason to beat around the bush. Ryu was blunt so being blunt would work in her favor. One thing she couldn't get over was that there was nothing to do, so it was boring. But at least she was with her Ashikabi.

He was still kind, and helpful. But they hadn't kissed since he winged her, she was beginning to wonder if he had any interest in her. She wondered if part of him like dressing and undressing her, but it could've been out of a sense of duty, responsibility... She wanted an answer, anything to know where they were going. They were stuck together.

"Yes?" Ryu asked staring at her as she stepped into his path, upon him walking to take a shower. She didn't respond verbally, instead she reached her hand out grabbing his. She bit her lip lightly, hating that she was starting to doubt her own Ashikabi, but if she didn't find out she'd be lost or sink into a depression before long. "Huh? What's the matter Ikki?" Ryu asked with some concern, he took a breath slowing his heart rate. She certainly surprised him.

"Why won't you... Touch me?" She asked quietly, the last part a mere whisper.

"W-What?" Ryu asked, looking at her with wide eyes, completely taken a back.

"You never touch me."

"So you almost give me a heart attack?" He chuckled lightly.

"Well, I was just... Wondering-" she looked as he cut her off calmly. Maybe this was a bad idea. Scratch definitely a bad idea.

"Well, I guess we can talk. I just don't know how to treat you, but I've taken care of you. But, I do feel responsible for you." He looked at her with a steady gaze, she grimaced at his interruption. Definitely a bad idea.

"I shouldn't have pushed." She turned walking to leave his room, Ryu stared at her for a moment. He felt a pang of guilt, this must've been torture for her. They were bonded and yet she kept her distance and he kept his, he had a feeling her end was because of him. Something slammed down on him, if it was a punch it'd knock him senseless. That moment he stood up grabbing Ikki stopping her from leaving.

"It's okay... Let's talk." He cleared his throat quietly, gesturing for her to sit on his bed.

* * *

Ryu sat on his bed, once the shock finally dissipated, he lost himself in his thoughts. He didn't know what exactly to say to her, but avoiding the issue was clearly not an option. It'd only backfire. He was still shocked that she was... Open? But he also began to feel guilty, he got the feeling he was unintentionally torturing her. Naturally, he didn't want her to suffer, anything but, but maybe she was anyway. It was like having a bird in a cage, but only ever taking the time to feed it. No it was more like petting a cat when it came to you, and then just walk away.

This was good if he spoke to her now they could clear the air. He was feeling guilty, but now than later or tomorrow.

Ikki sat criss crossed across from him.

"Well..." Ryu paused for a moment. "That Sekirei that attacked us, did you _have _to fight her?"

Ikki nodded in response.

Ryu could've fallen backwards in shock and surprise. Ikki was soft spoken and direct. But a simple nod. He held back a groan. "So, you have to fight other Sekirei you see?" He asked carefully.

"Yes," she gave a small nod of affirmation. She had an idea where this was going.

"So is it possible to have more than one Sekirei?" He asked the million dollar question.

She wanted to make a joke, but she refrained. Part of her didn't want to answer, wasn't she good enough? "Well, you can. It'll make you stronger as an Ashikabi, but you don't _have _to." She said scooting closer to him. The action didn't go unnoticed by Ryu, was Ikki possibly getting jealous? No that was impossible.

"What if they react to me...?" He asked with a raised eyebrow, curious. He had no idea what it was like, if Ikki was anything to go by they lost themselves, literally.

Ikki stayed silent for a moment. It was a thought that crossed her mind so far it hadn't happened. And she was hoping it would stay that way. "Then, you'd have to wing her." She gave a small shrug, hiding her emotions behind her somewhat calm face. "But, it hasn't happened yet, and who knows really." She composed herself, it could happen but she'd cross that bridge when it came, for now it was just the two of them. "But, is that what you wanted to talk about?" She asked, her head tilted to the side with a curious look.

_She's...Perceptive. _Ryu thought. Well, she was right.

"No it's not, but it does answer some questions," he said. How could he go about this without sounding so mean? "Us... Um, me and you. What are we exactly?" He thought of a thousand ways to say it, but he was always blunt. And it seemed to work in his favor and against it.

Ikki looked downtrodden for a moment before straightening up. Hadn't she made it clear enough before! "We're together. I'm going to love Ryu-kun forever and ever." She said with a calmness that almost startled him. "Do you not want me?" She asked.

Ryu's eyes widened for a moment. "I do! I do, I was just... Wondering." He scratched the back of his head nervously. He felt like a fool, but he couldn't blame her for asking that question. He was certainly confusing, he was confused himself. She loved him though? He wasn't one for words, but he understood words had power and meaning. Love was something he took serious but didn't quite know what 'love' is. He took a breath looking her into her eyes. "You love me?"

Ikki frowned when the question came out of his mouth. Was he doubting her? "Of course I do!" She said in a serious toned almost sounding offended, no she did sound offended at the question. "I loved you the moment we kissed." Was this why there was a barrier up?

"I didn't want to force you," he said quietly mostly to himself rather than her. She opened her mouth to talk but chose against it, she'd let him speak first. "I don't know how to treat you... I didn't... You're not exactly human, I don't know how you'll react with certain things." He sighed, looking at her carefully. He was questioning her loyalty. Worst of all her feelings. He felt like a jerk.

But she wasn't lying. Her feelings were true, he could feel an ocean of emotions flowing into and through him. It was almost a surreal experience, he looked at Ikki for a long moment. _I tried. _He said mentally, smiling softly. He reached his hand out touching Ikki's cheek. "I'm sorry. I've been so inconsiderate." He said apologetically.

Ikki would've shaken her head but she couldn't take her eyes off of Ryu's. "It's okay, I forgive you Ryu-kun." She could understand his dilemma not many people just kissed an alien and then find out they're together to the very end. But, for her it was confirmation, no a declaration she found her Ashikabi and she had no confusion about it. She wanted this. Only question was did Ryu? "I should've waited." She insisted gently.

Ryu didn't respond with an answer, instead he locked his lips with hers. Ikki's eyes widened in shock, he'd just kissed her! Her cheeks turned a lovely shade of red as she realized it. Green lotus wings flared from the back of her neck painting the entire room in a brilliant glow. _I shouldn't have waited. _The long haired man thought.

This was nice.

* * *

Well, I figured Ryu and Ikki relationship should progress more. And so it has. No questions, thanks for the reviews. I'm glad you like Ikki she rarely got any screen time, but I'm not sure if I got her outfit right. I don't want to spoil, but he'll have Sekirei who rarely got screen time. But that's vague anyways.

PM a suggestion maybe?


	6. Dropping In Golden eyes

**Anybody skateboard? T-puds just kills it every time!**

**No reviews. I didn't get one review for the last chapter, What's up with that people? Kind of bums me out...**

**I was debating action or not in this chapter. Of course I picked action, so some other things to push the story along. Maybe he wings another Sekirei.**

**A lemon. Why would they say or call it a lemon? I don't get it.**

**Anybody read that Freezing manga? I read a chapter it's kind of weird. One of those high school mangas... *shrugs***

**I think I got Ikki's outfit wrong, my apologies.  
**

* * *

"How are your hands feeling?" Ryu asked turning to look at Ikki with a mix of concern and curiosity.

"A lot better." Ikki replied, looking at her hands for a second, by now the cut thinned out and was almost healed. It'd be healed in about two days leaving just a small scar.

Ryu nodded. Things had been quiet since their first fight, and being a Sekirei had its benefits, he was sure her hands would be good as new in just two days. But, that didn't put him at ease since it was an ambush. But, he'd worry about that later once he got his information from a certain pervert.

* * *

Ryu sat on the couch, fiddling with his phone. It had been almost a eight days since Johnny called him. It was getting more than infuriating for him to be patient, he was ambushed dammit. If he was 'warned' about that ahead of time the entire situation could've perhaps been avoided altogether. Johnny didn't mention anything about ambushes, Ikki did say she had to fight. But ambush? It was questionable.

"I hate him," Ryu muttered flipping his phone open and dialing a number. Good thing Ikki was currently taking a shower, he didn't want her hearing by chance. The phone rang six times he felt like breaking the thing in his frustration. But, someone answered and it was the man that was the cause of his frustration for the past seven days.

"Yo, Ryu? How you feeling?"

"I'm angry mostly." Ryu growled. "You haven't contacted me for almost eight days, what the hell is that about? I want some answers to whatever this is..." He trailed off staring towards the bathroom.

"Sorry to hear that." Johnny said sympathetically. "I thought you'd have already snagged yourself a-"

"Get. On. With. It." Ryu said through gritted teeth with a strained voice, he didn't want to talk about women at the moment. That was a whole other issue, and it wasn't any of his business anyways.

"Alright, alright!" Johnny feigned shock. "To the point as usual. What I've managed to gather so far is that these strange energy sources belong to Sekirei. I'm not quite sure who or what they are, but they're certainly not human in any case nor are they natives of Outworld. It appears they are superhuman, and many have weird and special abilities at their finger tips. What these abilities are, your guess is better than mine..." He trailed off with a heavy sigh. A cool head was needed right now, but Johnny himself was stumped.

"You found information on them?" Ryu questioned not speaking on the information just given to him. Ikki already told him all of that for the most part, except the part on abilities. So far he'd only seen 'weapon' types what abilities could these Sekirei have? Fire, telekinesis, wind? He shook off the ominous feeling that was creeping up on him. He was severely lacking information and he didn't like it.

"I've had to search through the archives long and hard for what I've found." Johnny answered. He didn't sound too happy about it. "I was taking a break from it, that's when you called. I figured you'd call eventually to find out more. I took me seven days to gather what I did, most of it was spent actually searching..." He sighed over the line, he wasn't used to this. He wanted to be dazzling his opponents and friends alike and kicking someone's ass in the process. "I'll be getting back to it in a few hours, but for now that's all I can give you." He paused. "Just relax and try to live a little.

Ryu felt a mix of feelings, and they all jumbled together leaving him numb. "Thanks." He said voice devoid of any emotion. Not wanting to intrude any further he closed the phone ending his call. Well, at least he got _some _valuable information out of it about the Sekirei. There could be any number of obstacles and things to come, usually Johnny explained things in depth, but now the information was vague. He sighed reclining into the soft cushion. At least he had a vague idea of what he and Ikki were up against now.

* * *

"It's been quiet around here." Ikki commented, seated on the couch her head resting on Ryu's shoulder.

"It has been." Ryu agreed lounging back wrapping an arm around Ikki's tight waist. True to the word the thugs hadn't showed up as of yet since he first roughed them up. But he felt it was only a matter of time before something happened, things always got worse before they got better. But, that didn't matter at the moment he could finally relax and he was taking advantage of it.

But his sixth sense flared, it was his warrior's sense that saved him more times than he could count. His natural instincts. He felt like he was being watched, somewhere.

* * *

And time went on

Ryu and Ikki found themselves strolling down the streets of Shinto Teito. They had a purpose today unlike the last two months they spent familiarizing themselves with the city, and some of that time tending to and making sure Ikki's wounds healed properly.

For the past two months they had staked out various locations across the city, and knew the best paths to take to get through the city fast. This included high routes that had them move from rooftop to rooftop emphasizing speed and low routes if they wanted to avoid prying eyes. Over a few days they began to take note of four zones they dubbed as 'safe zones' should their apartment ever get attacked. Ikki was very helpful pointing out alleyways and side streets, Ryu couldn't help but smile at her enthusiasm.

There was one in each direction of the city with the northern area easily being determined the as the safest since everything in a fifth teen mile radius around a certain 'Maison Izumo' appeared to be completely crime free. And more importantly, had the least amount of surveillance coverage by MBI.

It seemed MBI was hesitant to dwell too much into that part of the city.

When they woke up they had showered, got dressed, and ate breakfast. Ryu was a good cook, he wouldn't say he was the best, but he spent the majority of his time living alone. He was guilty of eating meat most of the time, but it wasn't something to have for every single meal. So instead he learned to make a variety of dishes. After breakfast they headed out into the city.

"Should we find jobs?" Ikki asked as they slowly made their way down the busy streets. They couldn't even rely on MBI let alone at all. And their resume was limited to say the least. Having 'Sekirei' and 'professional assassin' along with all the ways they knew to kill someone wouldn't open up many doors.

Not any doors they had any desire to walk through. The Yakuza bosses and gang leaders would love their array of skills but they were already in one war, and he just left one, and they didn't feel like becoming a part of one any time soon as the various Yakuza fought over territory. They reminded Ryu of Onis, always fighting or trying to kill each other.

That just left the small jobs that anyone with some muscles or a pretty face could acquire such a construction work or being a waitress.

"I suppose, it shouldn't be too hard to find one." Ryu said as he his eyes scanned around for signs that would indicate that store in particular was hiring. He knew there were always little jobs to be done by anyone with the desire to do so. Much like reconnaissance or meetings had been more than an annoyance but necessary, naturally there would be jobs here that no one wanted to particularly do, but that needed to be done.

"Ah! Ryu-san!" An eerily familiar voice called out. Ryu couldn't quite place a name on it, but he was never good with names. He turned a saw a familiar black haired teen jogging towards him. "It's good to see you again." Minato said as he stopped just in front of Ryu.

"Minato?!" Ryu asked before patting the teen on his shoulders with both hands. Despite doing his best to restrain his strength he still almost shoved the boy to his knees. "It's been so long!" Ryu smiled a little turning over a little, opening his hand towards Ikki. "This is Ikki."

No need to tell him she was a Sekirei, but Minato didn't need to know that bit of information.

Ikki stepped forward, smiling. "It's nice to meet you, I'm Ikki." She said politely. She didn't know much about Minato, but courtesy wouldn't cost her anything in this situation.

"Ah... It's nice to meet you too." Minato replied politely with a small blush. It wasn't everyday that an extremely gorgeous woman spoke to him politely. His younger sister and mother were both very unique.. He didn't have very many friends, and certainly no female friends.

"So spit it. How have you been as of late?" Ryu asked, curious as to how he'd been doing. They parted ways a very long time ago under rather chaotic situations and Ryu had almost completely forgotten about the messy haired teen. He chose to keep that to himself.

"Well..." Minato hesitated, he wasn't sure if he wanted to answer that honestly. It was embarrassing to explain that you failed the entrance exam to his chosen university twice in a row. "I'm getting by. I'm trying to get into the local university, but I'm having more difficulty than I had previously thought." He didn't have to lie, he managed to tell the truth and leave out how much trouble he was having.

"Harsh, I wouldn't know really. I hate school. I doubt I'll ever try for a university. Something... Simple is all I want." Ryu grimaced, he hated school. He felt the important lessons in life had to learned first hand not from some book. But learning did have its place, he wasn't ignorant to that fact.

Minato chuckled to himself as he shook his head helplessly. His mother and sister would be on his case faster than he could blink if he just gave up. "I like your optimistic view on life... I wouldn't hear the end of it from my family if I just gave up." He winced at the thought of getting his ears chewed off. Not a pretty ordeal.

"Family...Huh?" Ryu said sadly, his eyes dimmed for a moment. Minato wondered for a moment if he said something he shouldn't have.

"Move! Please move out of the way!"

Ryu reacted in the blink of an eye, he moved faster than anyone could see, quickly shoving Minato out of the way sending the teen flying helplessly. Ryu didn't wait to see what happened to Minato but the sound of breaking glass couldn't be anything good. Oops. He whirled around, his eyes widened in surprise as a young woman barreled into him knocking him over.

Ikki was there in the blink of an eye sword placed directly on the girl's neck ready to end it if this woman showed the slightest hint of hostility. "Move and you die." Ikki said coldly as her protective side took over.

Ryu blinked away the spots of black that clouded his vision. In front of his eyes were perfectly shaped breasts. That certainly wasn't something he expected to see after the collision. "Well, this is quite the view." Ryu muttered.

Ikki turned her head to her Ashikabi and began to blush furiously as she watched Ryu stare at the other woman's breasts Ikki moved the girl off of Ryu and tapped him on the nose. "Hey now! You have me."

"I know! They were just there!" Ryu got the feeling that was the wrong answer to reply with when he seen Ikki's eyes narrow ever so slightly. He climbed up to his feet in a hurry and glanced around for a moment, he needed to change the subject, or have something that would assist him in doing such.

A moan drew both of their attention to the girl who was now sitting with her legs crossed over each other. She was holding her head, shaking it lightly as she massaged her temples. She had short, platinum blonde hair with two tufts sticking out at the sides that defied gravity, and several longer strands that framed her face. Her eyes were a very light brown, almost golden in color. Her breasts were larger, on par or even surpassing even Kitana and she had a figure that made every woman jealous. She wore a tight fitting outfit, he couldn't exactly call it indecent.

He wasn't sure what to call it but the top was burgundy in color, with a black stripe going across her chest, leading to a pair of white straps that went over shoulders and around her neck, only a small portion of her chest just below her neck was left exposed... Ryu's eyes widened a collar? She was wearing a damn collar. Said collar was wide and thick, the same burgundy tone as her shirt with big, circle studs in it, with a ring looped through the front stud.

She also wore black gloves that went all the way up to her biceps with white arm bands. She had wristbands that matched her collar, and she wore black pants for whatever reason her left leg was white from her hip to knee.

"That building was too high to jump from as I expected." The girl muttered to herself as she turned to look at Ryu. Ikki stiffened instantly, her combat mode only increasing. There was no way a regular person would wear an outfit like that. She didn't doubt that this was indeed a Sekirei.

"Are you okay?" Ryu asked with a curious tilt of his head. That seemed like a rather bad landing, and he was an expert on the subject. He had some nasty crashes.

The girl gave him a small smile as she stood up. "You must be the person that caught me. Thank you." She said politely as she bowed her head slightly. She seemed to be alright despite the long fall which Ryu was thankful for nothing like a broken bone to make you scream. It seemed she was made of tougher stuff than the average person. Which meant he had to be tread lightly regardless of her polite attitude and the fact she didn't show all of her emotions on her face did little to dispel any hostility. He knew she was schooling herself, there probably wasn't anyone alive better at schooling his emotions and changing faces than him.

The least he could do was be courteous. He was never one to abandon someone in need. Ryu chuckled lightly as he scratched the back of his head nervously. "I don't think it's I caught you, but more less you landed on me." The woman in front of him was certainly beautiful. Ikki was still better looking in his eyes, admittedly he may be slightly bias in that regard. If he wasn't already with someone, he may have been tempted to maybe ask her out to dinner. "Anyways, are you alright? That was quite a fall."

"I am. Thank you..." Ryu wrinkled his nose as the scent of ozone flooded his nostrils, and all the alarm bells started going off in his head. Ikki must have sensed the same thing since he could feel her tensing as well, unsure of what caused the weather to change.

"Move!" The blonde haired girl exclaimed as she went to shove Ryu out of the way. Ryu however, just slipped through her guard, grabbed her around the waist and jumped back a few feet just before another bolt of lightning blasted into the ground where the two of them had been.

Ryu was on guard now for an enemy attack. That strike just now had been far too accurate for it to be lightning, especially since there wasn't a cloud in the sky for miles to be seen, and secondly he felt a small flare of chi before the blast had almost struck him. It meant that there was someone else that attacked him, and that someone was capable of manipulating and attuning their chi enough to shoot off arcs of lightning. _So Johnny was spot on with that information._

He glanced over at the voluptuous woman he rescued from the lightning blast, she appeared to have known where it came from even before he did, and noticed her eyes were focused skyward towards the top of one of the nearby buildings. He followed her gaze, and Ikki followed his, finally they came to rest upon another set of, at least what Ryu considered to be indecent women. Women that were in costumes that would make even Jade sweat.

"Bondage... I just had lightning shot at me by women with a bondage fetish..." Ryu muttered quietly as flashbacks to the few times he did interact with Nitara flashed through his mind. "They have to be related to Nitara." He really hoped that wasn't the case, he still tried to scrub at the memories of 'Nitara's interrogations.' She had been well with her intentions, but her methods were extreme and he couldn't look at the rope the same way anymore. He also knew too many ways to torture people and tie them up.

"We have bigger things to worry about then relations." Ikki said as she glared daggers at the two on the rooftop anger pulsing through her. No one attacked her Ryu, nobody. The only reason she wasn't on top of the buildings slicing them to ribbons was because Ryu didn't look too concerned and because he wouldn't let himself get caught in such weak attacks.

The woman with the larger breasts between the two of them placed her foot smugly upon the railing of the rooftop they stood on, smirking down at them. "It's useless to run you know, you should just stay there and let us terminate you. We'll make it quick." She said as lightning began to crackle around her hand.

_At least I know where the lightning came from. _Ryu said mentally as he eyed the two on top of the building carefully. A dozen different plans and strategies played through his mind, different ways he could use to deal with the two of them. Lightning was powerful but it seemed more like a ranged to distance attack style.

But, being in a street full of people that were staring at them they were part of circus act heavily limited his choices. No fireballs this time since he wanted to keep the body count manageable, better yet to not have one at all. He would also rather keep as much of his abilities as much as he could. He had no problem using them, just not out in public like this another warrior tactic to keep things hidden and trump cards in hand. The more your opponents knew about you, they were that much harder to kill when you met on the battlefield, and he was sure MBI was watching or would be soon enough. There was no way this kind of activity would escape their notice.

There was probably a party room somewhere with TVs set up within MBI headquarters where staff sat around watching various events going on in the city when they had nothing better to do or were on break.

* * *

"Hey Haihane! Pass the popcorn! This is starting to get good!" A hand was waved impatiently.

Bondage twins, hehe, I like that." A bag of popcorn was tossed lazily across the room.

"Damn it! You airhead you poked holes in it again! Natsuo tell her to stop!" A finger was pointed angrily.

"Would you stop making a mess out of everything! I'm sick of cleaning up after you two!" A male voice spoke up annoyingly. "Damn it."

"Doesn't he look like an interesting man. I like interesting men." He interlocked his hands together, placing them under his nose as he bent forward staring at the screen intently.

"It's him! I can smell the blood swirling around him!" She licked her lips, shuddering in pleasure.

"I thought you got enough blood when you took a bath with that corpse a couple months ago! How can you possibly betray Natsuo like this!?" An indignant shout cut across the room.

"He doesn't smell like blood?" Innocently asked, as a tongue was dragged across a polished blade.

"You're a bunch of freaks I swear." A female voice cut in exasperatedly. "Shut up the best part is coming!"

Someone noisily licked their lips the sound traveling through the room.

Kukuku, I wonder if we have a four some I know some rope tricks. GYAH!" Blood sprayed as a talon pierced through her temple.

"I swear the two of them are insane! Natsuo!" A voice cried out.

* * *

"Just fight us already!" The second one said, her breasts were noticeably smaller but that didn't detract from her appearance. "It'll be less painful for you if you stop running so much. We'll make it quick."

"What did you do to make them mad?" Ryu asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I haven't been winged. They want to eliminate me before I become a bigger threat." The blonde told him. Resigning herself to her fate.

"What? Not happening!" Ryu said looking at her completely puzzled.

"Go. You don't need to get hurt. I'm not your Sekirei. This is my problem." The blonde told him. He could see the despair slowly consuming her golden eyes. It wrenched his heart to see her look so... Hopeless, he knew what that was like and it brought bad memories he didn't wish to entertain. So what if she wasn't his, she fell into his life and was now his responsibility until she was winged.

"Ryu-kun, are we going to run or fight?" Ikki asked, cutting right to the chase. "Decide now while we have time."

This changed things they weren't shooting the lightning at him just the woman that had landed on him breast first. Ryu wasn't going to have any of this. He had a rough idea of what was going on, the lightning bondage duo was attacking the beautiful blonde because she wasn't winged, and the blonde had resigned herself to her fate. But he did know he wasn't going to let someone who just fell into his life, literally to get hurt.

Ryu signaled Ikki to move in and disable the bondage duo with a quick glance. Ikki had told him more about their bond and she was devoted to him. So they developed many ways to communicate with each other silently, one of the best was with their eyes. "I won't stand here and let you hurt her." Ryu shouted as he moved in front of the voluptuous blonde, taking a comfortable stance. He wasn't one for stances, he was more of a precision fighter when it came to hand to hand combat, but it was an impressive sight.

"Hey!" The one with the larger breasts shouted in outrage as she placed her hands on her hips and glared at Ryu. "Move the hell out of the way! We're not here for you! Only miss little blondie over there." There were strict instructions not to involve anyone not involved in the Sekirei Game in the fights between Sekirei. Ryu didn't care however, and more importantly it prevented the bondage duo of going all out in such a situation. Everything was moving smoothly so far, seemed these two weren't quite perceptive.

The blonde stared at Ryu with wide eyes with an open mouth as she began to protest about being protected. Naruto shook his head holding up hid head shushing her. "No can do, I never go back on my word. And I'm going to protect her!" The woman in question eyes widened more, being moved by Ryu's declaration. She felt her chest tighten.

"You asked for it!" The woman in the purple bondage outfit shouted. She was going to make this purple haired idiot pay dearly. "Hikari, zap this loud mouthed fool!" There was dead silence and nothing happened for a moment and then a small thump that sounded like a body hitting the ground. "Hikari?!" The larger breasted of twins asked as she turned around to look at her sister. Her eyes widened, Hikari was lying in a heap on the ground unconscious but unharmed. She opened her mouth about to shout something to her sister when she felt something hit against the base of her neck, she blacked out. The platinum blonde haired woman stared at the top of the building where Ikki had just knocked out the lightning duo. Her golden eyes widened a fraction, Ryu thought that at any moment her mouth was going to agape and let flies in.

"Wow." The blonde woman said as looked up at Ikki who was picking up the two unconscious women. There were some questions Ryu wanted answered, and those two had those answers, or they better have them if they know what's good for them.

Ikki jumped from the building to the ground below landing gracefully and made her way over to Ryu's side. It was only about five stories high so it wasn't that bad. It did leave several onlookers to stare with their mouths agape. "What do you want to do with them?" Ikki asked as she stopped at Ryu staring at the blonde. She had Hibiki thrown over her left shoulder and the other one tucked under her right arm. They were going to stay out cold for a while. She hit them with enough force to break the average person's bones.

Ryu sighed as he looked at the two women in question, he needed some answers. There were some very, very strange things going on in this city and he'd be damned if he was going to be unprepared for it. Johnny wasn't very clear with the details, this lack of information could kill, it did kill. "We'll take them back to our apartment and tie them up. I have questions that need answers and I hope those two will have them." Ryu said as he glanced at the two bondage girls. Ikki just nodded in agreement. She figured it was something like that when she was up there knocking them out.

Finally, with the situation now diffused Ryu turned to the girl that had slammed into him earlier. "Sorry about that." Ryu said apologetically scratching the back of his neck. He didn't have anything to apologize for really but he learned early on in his life it was better to apologize first and ask questions later when dealing with the opposite sex. "I'm Ryu." He said holding his hand out to the girl. "And she's Ikki." Ryu finished as he held his hand towards Ikki indicating it was her he was referring to. "I assume you're a Sekirei."

"Yes," She answered concisely. "I was running from them. I was afraid that they were trying to terminate me. Your presence actually kept me from being terminated. I'm number sixty two, Kaie."

"How convenient for you, Kaie." Ikki narrowed her eyes.

"I didn't... Well, I suppose..."

"Maybe we could just get rid of her, less competition." Ikki suggested.

"I-" Kaie took a nervous step back.

"We're not doing that," Ryu said firmly. He opened his mouth to respond, when the woman started tipping over. Ryu moved quickly catching her before she could hit the ground, holding her gently in his arms. He looked to Ikki raising an eyebrow questionably.

She simply shrugged in response, it was his call, and from the looks of it he wasn't leaving her. "Maybe we should take her back with us." Ikki said as she looked down at the girl, noticing for the first time just how exhausted she appeared to be. "I know she's been chased all over the city by these two. I... Wouldn't feel right if we just left her here."

Ryu nodded and picked her up bridal style. "Okay, let's head back to our apartment. Job hunting is now done for the day." He snorted quietly to that, everything but happened today.

Minato climbed out of the store he had gone crashing into with a groan. Luckily he landed in a pile of clothing and none of the shards of glass had gotten on him. He watched Ryu and Ikki walk away from the area and was about to chase after them to give him a piece of his mind when he noticed the massive gash in the sidewalk where the lightning had struck earlier. Ironically, it was where he had been before Ryu shoved him out of the way. He forgave Ryu for tossing him through a building, it was a lot better than being electrocuted.

He turned to walk away, but out the corner of his eye he noticed a strange silver haired man garbed almost head to toe in black with a black face mask watching Ryu and Ikki walk away with an intense look in his eyes. Minato rubbed his eyes, blinking, when he looked at the spot the dark clothed man was gone.

A cough sounded behind him with the sound of a foot impatiently tapping on the cement.

Minato turned around coming face to face with the rather irate store manager.

"How are you going to pay for this?" As she waved her hand towards the broken window and ruined displays. "And for that?" She nodded at his shoulder. Minato looked down, blushing. There were a few bras hanging from his shoulder.

"Well, I-I-" Minato sputtered. He had no idea what to do or say in this situation.

"Let's go! You're coming with me!" The woman said harshly as she grabbed him by the collar and began to drag him back into the department store.

Minato sighed and resigned himself to his punishment. His sister and mother would never let him hear the end of this, another headache. Maybe he shouldn't be too quick to forgive Ryu as he had just now.

* * *

Ryu was glad he and Ikki went out scouting earlier in the month, carrying two unconscious girls through the main streets of Shinto Teito was a good way to get arrested quickly. They weaved through various back alleys and minor streets in the shadier sections of the city. Sometimes they went through a couple backyards and over the rooftops of single story buildings.

It took far more time than any other route would have taken them, but finally they made it back to their apartment. However, by this time it was already approaching dinner time if the sunset sinking in the west illuminating the sky in an orange glow was anything to go by.

* * *

**Well, I'll end it here. Sort of a cliffhanger. If you read this and like it or have a question you can leave a review or PM me the question. I know some people have some. A little humor at MBI and Minato in this chapter. I don't know when my next update will be maybe a few days to a week. And I'll say it now, he won't have any single numbers if you're one of the people that were or are still wondering.**

**I like Kaie. I wonder if I got her right in this chapter. And I'm sure most of you guessed what comes next but I won't say anything.**

**Review!**


	7. Explain

This story seems well received and liked. Awesome! Thanks for reading. No questions. No reviews. Come on people you must have something, anything... Curious about things, suggestions... Chapter maybe a bit slow but necessary.

* * *

It was until after the two entered their home that Ryu came to a realization. "Do we even have any rope?" Ryu asked as he began going through the mental checklist of all the supplies he had on him.

Ikki thought about if for a second before sighing quietly. She shook her head a few times negatively as she dropped the two unconscious woman on the floor. "I have some MBI wire. It'll work but it won't be as comfortable as rope, but that's not my problem." Ikki said as she strolled into the bedroom to grab some of it. She kept some on her in case of an emergency but she never used it in combat so she didn't keep it on her.

Ryu stared at Ikki's perfectly shaped ass as she made her way into the bedroom. He never got tired of looking at her. An amazing body was one of the perks of being a Sekirei. "Great, let me see the wire first, then hang them from the ceiling when you find the wire. I'll place a chi restrictions seals on them too, I don't want them blowing anything up when they wake up." Ryu called after Ikki as she disappeared into the room. An acknowledging murmur drifted from the room.

Ryu laid Kaie down on the couch and gently brushed some of her hair out of her face. Kaie, and the bondage twins that attacked her, were a mystery to him. In a city populated with citizens who don't have an ounce of chi it was strange to find exceptions such as these. There were a few people who had chi, but just enough to survive and that's it.

Like Ikki these three were pulsing with untapped Chi potential. It was almost as if they had barely scratched the surface of what they were capable of. They were just like the girl that attacked Ikki two months ago only less violent. Even those bondage twins hadn't been out for blood, they didn't seem like bad people intent on causing harm. The situation earlier was more like challenging someone to a duel or a spar, as opposed to a fight to the death. Ryu was a good judge of character over the years, admittedly he made mistakes from time to time.

Ryu headed for the kitchen and got started on dinner. It was a little early to get started but he nor Ikki had been able to stop for lunch. It was a little difficult carrying three unconscious girls. Most of the establishments would call whatever security force routinely protected the city and sic them on them. Ryu rummaged through the fridge and pantry to figure out what to cook in the end he decided on curry. It was simple, easy, and they had more than enough ingredients for it. It was a new recipe he had picked up and learned.

Ikki walked back into the room with two bundles of MBI wire one resting in each hand, she looked over at the different ingredients Ryu was taking out of the fridge. "Curry?"

"Yeah, Kaie is more than likely to be hungry as well so I'm making extra. I felt her stomach growling the whole way here. If there's not enough I can just have some meat." Ryu said calmly, not completely upset at the prospect. Running out of enough food for seconds was a good way to convince Ikki. As requested she walked over to Ryu who ran his hand along the length of the spool. She raised an eyebrow at the simple gesture but continued.

Ikki rolled her eyes as she sauntered over to Hikari and picked her up. "Don't deliberately make too little okay?" Ikki replied with a small laugh. She knew the tricks Ryu pulled, but she didn't say anything about it. They weren't worth arguing over as long as he got some nutritious food inside of him besides meat. "Any specific position you want them in?" Ikki asked as she started to wrap up Hikari. There were some things to take into account, like tying the arms and legs.

"Face down with a hogtie binding should suffice. Raise them so when they're suspended they're face to face with us." Ryu said glancing up from what he was doing. Curry was still a new recipe for him and he still made mistakes. It seemed like a simple thing at first but unless he concentrated it turned out horid. He even burned his taste buds one time, too much curry.

"A strange position." Ikki said idly as she began to tie Hikari up thoroughly. One of the advantages to using this special wire was she didn't need a support beam to hang the women. When Hikari was hogtied, Ikki jumped up to the ceiling pulling Hikari up with her. When they were at the right height she uncoiled the rest of the MBI wire and pressed it to the ceiling. It would stay there for at least a day. It could be asking a bit much for it to last longer.

Hibiki joined her sister a moment later, hanging from the ceiling in the same position at the same elevation. It was a sight that would certainly look odd if anyone walked in on them. Ikki admired her handiwork for a moment before focusing on the girl lying on the couch. She didn't know what to make of their other guest. She wasn't anything like the two hanging captives. She was just a Sekirei a bystander to Ryu who he had protected, bless his heart, and taken her with them when she fainted in his arms.

Ikki sighed softly taking a seat on the couch beside the woman, lifting Kaie's head up, placing it in her lap as she did so. Ikki felt a need to protect the blonde. Ryu obviously wasn't going to get rid of her so miles well make her comfortable at least.

Forty minutes later, Ryu finished up with the curry, and Kaie woke up groggily. She lifted her head from Ikki's lap rubbing her eyes gently. She sniffed the air a few times. "Food..." Kaie murmured as a loud growl echoed through the apartment. Kaie's stomach made itself known. Ryu and Ikki just stared at each other for a moment.

Ryu chuckled lightly, filling up a plate with curry and brought it over to the couch. "Here, I just finished making dinner." Ryu said kindly as he extended his arms with the plate to Kaie. Kaie's eyes glowed as she grabbed the plate and began to dig in.

"It's very good." Kaie said when she was done chewing.

"At least she has manners." Ikki said as she looked at Kaie with a careful eye. Ryu just shook his head as he strolled back to the pot of curry to get Ikki and himself their food.

Kaie only nodded, still shoveling food into her mouth.

"Don't eat too fast." Ryu said as he came back over to the couch with two plates of curry. "Don't want to clean curry off of the floor tonight." Kaie stopped for a moment and gave him a blank look. Ryu sighed quietly placing Ikki's dinner in front of her. "It's nothing." He mumbled as he knelt on the floor on the other side of the small living room table to eat. Kaie seemed like a good girl, there were a lot of things there.

"May I have more?" Kaie asked as she looked at Ryu's plate. She already finished her curry.

"Wow!" Ikki exclaimed as she looked at Kaie. "She ate that curry about as fast as you meat. How is that possible?" She asked, she would like an explanation. Ryu was like a black hole when it came to meat, food in general. It was inhaled faster than you could blink. This woman may have beaten Ryu's record.

Ryu knew it was almost an impossibility. Back in Outworld Bo Rai Cho had an entire stockpile to feed him. If need be he had a conveyer belt. It was the only way to keep up with in appetite. Luckily the old master didn't mind the work.

Ryu began to push his plate towards Kaie when Ikki stopped him. "Don't, you made this meal, you eat." Ikki told Ryu as she pushed her plate in front of Kaie. "I'll bring the pot over. It'll be easier that way. There won't be much for leftovers tonight."

Ikki was right, twenty minutes later the entire pot of curry was gone along with all of the rice. Ikki sighed shaking her head at the sight. Kaie seemed to be as bad as Ryu when it came to food. She had a black hole for a stomach. Maybe it was just this time. "There are two of you..." She murmured under her breath as she stared at the floor in despair. How could she go anywhere nice to eat with two black holes?

"Thank you very much Ryu-sama." Kaie said as she looked at Ryu with a serene calmness but happiness was clear. Ryu wondered if she mentally schooled herself or if it just came naturally even when she was happy. It was a little settling that it was consistent so far. "You saved me earlier and now this." Kaie put a hand over her heart and looked like she was about to fall on Ryu. Ikki placed a hand on Ryu's leg in case she had to pull him away. Kaie didn't seem to notice. "I was famished I just fainted right there and you took care of me." Ryu sweat dropped at that. She fainted from hunger? How long did she go without any food? She didn't appear to be malnourished. "I'm indebted to you. I wish someone like you could be my Ashikabi-sama."

"Indebted?" Ryu asked curiously, where was she going with this? Ryu began to dig through his memories for any reference to the simple word. Ikki narrowed her eyes thoughtfully as she stared at Kaie. Was she suggesting he wing her?

A sudden knock on the door broke everyone out of their thoughts. Ryu gave Ikki a hard look and the Sekirei nodded. She got up and faded from anyone's view as she entered the kitchen.

"Stay here Kaie, I'll be right back." Ryu said with a small smile as he stood up and headed to the door. Behind him the two women began to stir. He placed a few chi draining seals on them and headed for the door.

"Okay." Kaie said respectfully as she gave a small bow.

Ryu approached the door slowly extending his senses to try and get a feel for what was on the other side. They were in an apartment, so those pain in the ass telemarketers weren't an explanation. The police would have already announced themselves and criminals would've just kicked the door down to splinters. And no assassin with an ounce of self respect would walk in through the front door, definitely not after alarming him to the presence with a knock. On the bad side it didn't leave a lot of possibilities. It left him down to nothing that he knew of and that's what made him more nervous than usual. If he had experience with it he could deal with it.

After extending his senses further Ryu picked up a couple things. First it was an older individual and they had more chi compared to the average civilian. It wasn't enough to worry to be alarming, and nothing compared to that crazed spear using woman, but it was still interesting. There was a strange vibe radiating from whoever it was. Ryu couldn't pin it down but whoever it was, was different beyond just having more chi than most people in this world. If he had to rate it, he'd say it was on par with an oni general.

Nothing to worry about back then, but still impressive for a regular person.

Ryu decided to just open the door and see who it was. He figured he'd act as if he was just a regular person and not a super powered warrior. He couldn't sense anyone aside from this one individual in the hallway, which meant they were at the door alone.

Ryu opened the door as he placed a grin on his face ready to greet whoever it was. "Good evening, how can I help you?" Ryu asked as he stared at the person on the other side of the door. It was a man that was in mid twenties at best. He was tall, but still shorter than Ryu and was lean built with brown hair that was untamed no matter how much he combed it. He wore a white undershirt with a pair of black jeans and black boots he had a leather jacket lazily thrown over his left shoulder and held it in a light grip.

The man didn't look like he had any visible weapons on his person and his physic wasn't that intimidating that he appeared to be a threat. Ryu was thankful that the two bondage twins weren't within visible sight otherwise that would be rather hard to explain.

"Ah yes! I'm Seo, Seo Karou and I was hoping you could help me with something." The man said holding a grin. "I seemed to have misplaced two of my companions and I was wondering if you happened to know where they were. They're twins, and they enjoy wearing identical suits when on business you see. One wears purple and the other red..." Seo stopped as he felt the cold edge of a blade pressed against his throat from behind.

Ryu wasn't smiling anymore.

"How did you find me? How are you working for? And give me a good reason why I shouldn't have your throat slit and your body fed to dogs." Ryu demanded as he glared murderously at Seo. This wasn't pleasant. They had taken every precaution to get home without being detected, and yet this man somehow found them not even an hour after they arrived.

Factoring the distance the apartment was from the place the lightning twins had fought Kaie he must have already been after them before they arrived.

This brought up startling possibilities and disturbing thoughts that Ryu want to amuse.

Seo swallowed hard as he held up his hands in a sign of surrender. Being extremely careful not to anger who was behind him. He hadn't even sensed them approaching and he prided himself on being perceptive. Whoever this was was good, too good.

"I don't mean any harm," Seo said hastily. "I don't work for anyone. I'm just a freelancer, honest."

"Don't feed me that bullshit!" Ryu interrupted harshly, swinging his fist through the air in front of him for emphasis. "A freelancer is someone for hire, someone hired you to attack Kaie, now answer me completely. Or you will die!" Ryu was fiercely protective when his precious people were threatened.

Seo swallowed hard and carefully for a second time, this wasn't how he planned this meeting to go. He had just planned to walk in, joke around, do his job, get his girls and get out. "I wasn't hired to attack Kaie in specific." Seo said, he got the chilling feeling this wasn't the time to play around. "I was hired to have my girls takeout a specific group, when, where, and how didn't really matter. Death was actually supposed to be avoided, we're sort of in the middle of a competition. My employer wanted me to remove some of their competition." Seo replied finally. It was difficult to find the proper words to explain the situation without giving too much away.

"Kaie is one of these competitors?" Ryu demanded, it made sense in a way. Kaie had said 'before' when the two women had wanted to fight her, and considering she fainted from hunger it was plausible she wanted to until after she had eaten and regrouped to fight. Kaie was that kind of girl. But, Ryu knew Seo was bending the truth a lot, too much. There was too much he wasn't saying.

Seo would've nodded f he wasn't scared his throat would be cut clean by the movement. Instead he simply made an O with his hand signaling Ryu was correct.

"And how did you find this place?"

Seo began to build on his earlier story. "I'm a competitor in the competition as well, everyone has a tracking device located on them so they can be found by the administrators of the competition if they are defeated. It's so the defeated competitors can be retrieved and sent back to a medical facility to recover for the rest of the game. I have access... To privileged infromation than the average competitor does and I used it o track my girls here." This was all true technically, he knew bending the truth this much was dangerous, but he didn't want to deal with the Disciplinary Squad hunting him down for breaking the rules.

The competitors were being tracked? Ryu frowned deeply at this thought. That meant all three girls behind him including Ikki were traceable by some unknown organization. He didn't care too much about the bondage duo, but he did care about Kaie. "How do I remove this tracking device?"

"I don't know honestly, I just know that they exist, which is more than what most competitors realize."

That wasn't the answer Ryu wanted to hear, but this man wasn't lying, he could tell that much. "One last question... Why shouldn't I cut your throat and have your body dumped in the river?" Ryu questioned, he was more than tempted to just do that. Seo was a threat to him now. If he could track the lightning twins with this tracking device then it was feasible that he track anyone involved in the competition.

"Because you'll stain the carpet out here red, and that would be difficult explaining to the owner of the building?" Seo offered, maybe a little humor would defuse the dangerous situation. Blood was difficult to get out of carpet and the smell lingered.

Ryu smiled slightly letting out a soft chuckle. He stepped back as he gestured for Seo to go. "I have more questions that need answers. Come in." Ryu said after a moment and the blade vanished from Seo's throat. Seo carefully rubbed the spot where the blade had been and sighed audibly in relief. That was an experience he wanted to go through again.

Ryu turned and headed into the living room of the apartment, expecting Seo to follow.

The man sighed stepping in. Life had gotten interesting ever since the Sekirei Plan had started. As he entered the apartment Seo noticed it wasn't all that big, not this this building in particular had any large rooms for sale. It was meant for young couples. A family would make most of the rooms crammed.

One of the first things he noticed was Kaie seated on the couch and smiled with appreciation. He had respect for the female body. He knew who she was, he knew who all of the Sekirei were, it was his business to know. He had a friend in a high place before and that left him very informed.

He still couldn't sense anything from the presence that was following him. He knew they were there but opted not to turn around, he didn't feel like getting a blade thrust in his back.

As the freelancer made his way into the living room he couldn't help but whistle loudly at the sight. His Sekirei were hanging from the ceiling in a very appraising fashion. The way they were bound really accentuated their developed bodies.

"I have to say, I like the decor of this place." Seo said as he walked over to his bound Sekirei and admired them. He wished he had a camera to make this event more lasting. Although knowing his girls they'd destroy the camera and the footage the moment they found it. Then they'd beat him to an inch of his life for taking the picture in the first place. "If I tried to do something like this to them they'd kill me. You've got good taste, I have to hand it to you." Seo wasn't just admiring his Sekirei, he took note of how the wire holding up the girls simply stick onto the ceiling and how there were pieces of paper with strange writing attached to a part on the girl's bodies.

A feeling he got made him against touching the papers. They were sticking to the twins like the wire was sticking to the wall. There was something going on well beyond his area of expertise and he had no intention of messing around with it.

"Just taking precautions to make sure they're not capable of harming anyone when they wake up." Ryu said as he eyed Seo intensely, taking a keen note of where his eyes lingered and what they ignored. Ryu stood between Seo and the couch, just in case he wanted to hurt the girls behind him.

Seo turned to face Ryu, noticing a second woman in the room sitting next to Kaie. This one was a beautiful indigo haired woman with the most unique eyes Seo had ever seen. She had long perfectly shaped and toned legs and her face would make models weep with jealousy. Then there were her breasts...

A knife whistled through the air cutting him on the cheek, it continued on striking the wall and sank several inches in. Blood began to run down the side of Seo's face. Ryu and the lady he had been ogling were both glaring at him. "Leer at my fiancee one more time, and I'll rip those eyes out of your head." Ryu snarled in a harsh tone his eyes turning pitch black for a moment as they narrowed. He was very serious.

Seo nodded as fast as he could, staring at man's future bride was a very good way to get hurt, he turned his head towards Kaie. "She's off limits too." This man was good. Oh well, he still had his lightning twins behind him and an entire city of Sekirei to ogle.

Seo backed up so he was standing between his Sekirei that were hanging from the ceiling. He raised his hands up to his shoulders in a sign of surrender and that he hadn't meant any harm. "Sorry. I won't look anymore." He said. The two girls bound let out groans as they began to open their eyes, awakening from their unconscious state that was forced upon them.

"Hikari, Hibiki, glad to see you two are awake." He said with a cheerful tone as he kissed them both on the cheek. He made sure to avoid their mouths he was already walking on thine ice. He knew if he had tried to initiate their Norito he'd be dead before he got to his second Sekirei. The two of them Ryu and Ikki were watching his every movement.

Kaie seemed to pick up on the subtleties that were going on here and watched everything in a calm manner. Her head was straight while she rested her hands in her lap.

"Seo?" Hikari asked as she looked over at her Ashikabi. "Where am I? What's going on?" Hibiki was equally confused like two people who just came around they weren't aware of their surroundings.

"Ah.. Ha... Ha..." Seo let out a strained laugh. "We seem to have been captured." Seo answered, summarizing their situation bluntly. Seo may have not been in chains but he didn't doubt this was anything less than captivity. Ryu wasn't going to just let him go.

"What the hell is going on?" Hibiki said as she tried to wiggle out of her bindings. She was an elemental Sekirei and lacked the strength necessary to snap metal, especially metal that was specifically designed to bend and absorb impacts like MBI wire. "Why are we tied up like we're in a bondage movie?"

Seo nervously chuckled. "You can thank that young man over there for your condition." Seo replied, drawing Hibiki and Hikari's ire towards Ryu.

"You!" Hibiki shouted in anger. "You're the one that stopped us from attacking that unwinged... Sekirei." Hibiki almost stopped herself from revealing too much information but she recognized the short haired woman. "Let me down now before I blast you into next week!"

"Go ahead and try." Ikki said as she stood up and approached the two bound Sekirei. "For the record, the only way you're blasting my Ryu-kun is over my dead body." She growled slapping Hibiki across the face. "I'm the one that bound you and put you up there, and you'll be staying like that until _I _feel like letting you go. Which maybe _never if I feel like you're _a threat to my Ryu-kun."

Hibiki glared at the girl in humiliation as she tried to draw her lightning. She was going to teach this little punk a lesson when she felt a block like slamming into a wall. She gasped loudly when she realized she couldn't use her powers anymore. "What did you do to me?" She exclaimed, well beyond scared at this point if she lost her abilities was Seo still her Ashikabi logic and any common sense flew out the window as she began to fret.

Seo narrowed his eyes as he was saw his woman panic. He groped her breast comfortingly. Ryu and Ikki both raised an eyebrow at Seo but noticed how this seemed to calm Hibiki down. Ikki turned and headed to the couch to sit beside Kaie. "I have sealed away your powers for the moment, don't worry, if you and Seo cooperate with us and answer my questions, you may all leave here tonight no worse for wear." Ryu's eyes narrowed shifting to a pitch black again as he held each of their gazes. "But if I don't get answers, you will be dumped in the nearest river later tonight."

Kaie was more tuned into what was going on. "If I'm too much trouble I'll go." She said resigning herself to that fate. She knew what Ryu was implying with that statement. She didn't want to be the cause of their deaths. She knew about the harsh realities of the world, she wasn't innocent. She knew the meaning of the seedier phrases.

Ryu and Ikki looked over at Kaie and narrowed their eyes in unison. "Out of the question." Ryu said. He had no intention of kicking Kaie to the curb. He couldn't live with himself if he sent her back to the streets.

Seo swallowed hard once again as he stopped groping Hibiki. It may have appeared to be a rather strange move to most people, but that was his way of saying he was still with her and wanted to continue being with her. He wasn't exactly the most romantic individual. Some of his acquaintances called him scum and trash with very good reason.

"All right. I'll try to answer what I can, but please know I can't say everything." Ryu frowned a scowl settling on his face. Seo put his hands up again. "It's not what you're thinking. Even if you threaten to kill me for not telling I'm dead if I do." Ryu sighed quietly, he knew what that was like. Some secrets were worth taking to the graves, and revealing other secrets was a good way to put you in one.

"Alright." Ikki sitting beside Kaie agreed. Seo idly wondered for a moment if she was the dominant one in the relationship.

"Let's start from the top. What's a Sekirei and what's an Ashikabi?" Ryu started off, Seo grimaced as he tried to figure out how to word his response.

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I figured I'd stop here since I'm nearing my 5,000-8,000 word count. Took me a while to update sorry about that if you were waiting. Leave me some reviews with nice words and feedback. Hope you read and enjoy.


	8. Confirmation

**Thank you for the review man! It goes a long way. I haven't got any questions yet, maybe because this is the first story of its kind and you readers are just waiting to see how it goes and which direction I take. I won't say in detail why it took so long but video games and some troubles have delayed me. **

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"I have an answer for that." The calm blonde spoke up as something finally made her chip in. "I'm a Sekirei." She smiled softly and placed her hands in her lap, her breasts pressing together. Ryu struggled not to look but couldn't help but admire that with appreciation. Seo noticed that with a smirk. He kept his smirk from widening as he understood. He wasn't the only one with appreciation of the female body. "An Ashikabi is our destined one. We Sekirei search for them so that we can be winged by them. We dedicate our whole lives to them, and we will spend all eternity with them." Kaie said with a radiant glow in her eyes. "That's what I was doing today. I was looking for my Ashikabi when those two over there attacked me."

That helped Seo a little bit. Since he already had a Sekirei what Kaie revealed wasn't all that bad.

Ryu walked over standing beside Kaie and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to worry about those two anymore." He said with a smile. "If they even look at you the wrong way tell me and I will..." Ryu slowly turned his head to glare at three of them, an eerie smile stretched across his face. "Deal with them permanently."

Seo and his twins shuddered and cringed away from that smile. That didn't look human by any stretch of the imagination. Kaie simply looked up at Ryu as a blush began to form.

"As informing as Kaie was, it still didn't answer several things." The violet eyed man said as he folded his arms over his chest. He already knew this. Ikki leaned forward. Seo was vigilant not to look at her cleavage, he liked where his eyes were. "The pairing of Sekirei and Ashikabi, what is the relationship really? Is it master/slave? Lovers? How does a Sekirei choose an Ashikabi? What are the requirements?" He stopped for a moment as Seo began waving his arms frantically. He looked rather strange doing that, it looked as if he was trying to fend off invisible daggers that were being launched at him. He may be right in a sense, but they were different daggers.

"Whoa, hold on. I can only answer so many questions at one time. Since you obviously know about Sekirei and Ashikabi that will make things a little easier for me." Seo said as he interrupted Ryu. He may get in trouble for saying this but at least this man knew something already. He figured he could explain the whole thing. As long as he kept the details of the competition a secret he'd be alright. "The relationship between the Ashikabi and Sekirei is up to the two of them to decide. It's not set in stone. The only thing that is similar in every case is the undying love and loyalty the Sekirei has for their Ashikabi." Seo grimaced slightly as he directed a glare at the floor.

There were some shady activities going on out there. There were a number of individuals that used their Sekirei to do things they normally wouldn't do, but because of the bond... "When a Sekirei does find their destined Ashikabi they exchange bodily fluids, usually in the form of a kiss, and it enacts a ritual that binds the Sekirei to the Ashikabi. As proof of the bonding wings erupt from the back of the Sekirei and the crest glows."

Naruto and Ikki glanced at each other, their faces expressionless but they had the same thoughts running through their head. Not that Seo knew what they were currently thinking of, though he made a note of the look and put it in the back of his head.

"Em..." Seo cleared his throat bringing everyone's attention back to him. "And as for how the Sekirei find their Ashikabi? No one knows." Seo said with a small shrug. "What is known however is that when a Sekirei is within the presence of their Ashikabi they begin to react. First they unconsciously stick close to them, then their bodies start heating up, their heart beat quickens, and they start to blush. Oh damn she's reacting to you man!" Seo finished his explanation with a shout as he pointed at Kaie.

Four heads whirled to stare at Kaie. Her face was deeply flushed as her breathing was short gasps. She was playing with her fingers as she stared up at Ryu with with affection and adoration. With Ryu's attention focused on her the heat that was building up within her chest and between her legs become unbearable, even if normally she could compose herself. Now wasn't a time.

"Ryu-sama..." Kaie whispered huskily, Ryu resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow at that he wasn't aware that she could sound husky. "You're my Ashikabi-sama. I've found you at last!" The hope, knowing, and joy that filled Kaie's voice was more than a little unnerving. Without another sound she lunged at Ryu, only to find she couldn't move. Ikki placed her hand on Kaie's legs and held them with an iron grip. Ikki grunted quietly forced to use more of her strength to hold Kaie down. Ryu's hands quickly clamped down and Kaie's shoulders and held her down.

"NOOOO!" Kaie cried in despair, it was sound that almost broke Ryu's heart.

"Why are you stopping her?" Seo asked incredulously. How could he even think of turning down such a woman? Had he not noticed the size of her breasts? All those curves in the right places? The face and lips that were begging to be kissed? The luscious set of legs?

"She's a good girl. It's not that I don't want her, but I already have a fiance. I won't cheat on her with another woman. I love Ikki and I'm not going to break her heart being with someone else." Ryu said through his gritted teeth. Kaie was becoming harder and harder to hold in place. The reacting Sekirei squirmed and thrashed as she fought to break out their combined grasp. She needed Ryu now more than anything.

_Ikki, I knew she looked familiar. _Seo thought as he stared at the two trying to hold Kaie down. He also noted how Ryu had somehow managed to keep a reacting Sekirei completely still with what looked like nothing more than just pure physical strength. Seo scratched the back of his head coming to a decision. The main reason he wanted to know off unwinged Sekirei out of the game was to prevent unnecessary heartache. Or worse being forcibly winged by others.

This situation where Kaie had already found her Ashikabi was different. To break her away from her Ashikabi right after she had found him would hurt more than anything else.

"You know man, there are Ashikabis that force wings upon Sekirei." Seo said gaining Ryu's and Ikki's attention. "Sekirei try to find their destined one, but some people don't care about that. A person can force a Sekire's undying love and obedience. The transfer doesn't need to be done with the destined one, the destined one is the best choice for the Sekirei. That's why I have my girls chase down unwinged Sekirei. Better that they find no one, than be stuck with the wrong person forever. The number of people trying to force Sekirei to become their slaves is increasing. One person has over ten, and considers them to be nothing more than toys, possessions, and collectables."

Naruto and Ikki stared at one another for a few long moments. Ikki's thoughts going to the speak Sekirei and how terrible her Ashikabi had been. The thought of Kaie being forced into that kind of relationship. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she let it happen. Kaie would understand why it was happening it to her, she'd be forced to endure it all and all because Ikki forced her away from the one person she was compatible with.

Ryu's thoughts were along similar lines. He despised those that treated people as mere possessions. Onaga's entire plan had been something similar, except on a much grander and wide scale, Forcing everyone to bend to his will and desire instead of just a single individual. And if they didn't they were silenced with a quick and extremely painful death.

"Ryu-sama... Ashikabi-sama.. Please accept me..." Kaie cried out, tears leaking from her eyes as she stared up at Ryu.

Ikki removed her hands from Kaie's legs and sat back with a sigh as she closed her eyes and crossed her leg over the other. "Ikki?" Ryu asked carefully. Kaie was next to impossible to hold down with just his own strength in this position. He didn't want to enhance it with his chi, unless he hurt the girl.

Ikki didn't like it one bit. She didn't want to share Ryu. But the thought of Kaie being forcefully winged like Nanami was even worse. Images of Kaie's depressed and drained face, her will shattered, fleeted through her mind and caused her to flinch slightly.

Ikki couldn't go through with it. As much as she didn't want to share Ryu she would never be able to live the guilt down if she stopped this from happening.

"I could use a new sister. I suppose." Ikki finally said lamely. It was pitiful excuse, and they both knew it. But Ryu took it for what it really was, Ikki's acceptance of Kaie and her willingness to share him.

Ryu slowly relaxed his grip and Kaie took advantange of the small opening in the blink of an eye. "Ryu-sama!" She cried out in joy as he jumped into his arms and kissed him full on the lips. Had Ryu not braced himself or wasn't prepared for it she would have slammed him on his ass but he simply stumbled back a few steps.

Eight brilliant golden wings burst out from Kaie's back, bathing the room in a soft gold glow. Ikki tilted her had curiously as she looked on and had to concede, it was a breathtaking sight seeing it from the outside. She relaxed a little, reaching out and brushing one of the wings. Noticing how it bent around her hand instead of offering resistance. The crest on Kaie's back began to glow, just below the base of her neck. It glowed with the same golden color as the brilliant wings.

The glow receded Kaie's wings slowly disappeared into her back. The blonde looked up into Ryu's eyes lovingly and smiled. "Thank you..." She whispered, her voice filled with joy. "Thank you for accepting me Ashikabi-sama." Kaie said lovingly as she wrapped her arms around Ryu hugging him close.

Ikki twitched but settled down. It was hard to be at Kaie especially when she looked and sounded so happy. It's not like she was doing anything inappropriate either. It was just a hug.

She was going to make sure to smother Ryu in hugs when they went to bed tonight.

"Looks like we won't be chasing her anymore," Hikari said quietly as looked on at the scene before her.

"Guess not." Seo confirmed. At least Kaie found an Ashikabi that can take care of himself. Seo wasn't exactly quite sure what Ryu was but he knew he wasn't human. He wasn't a Sekirei either, but he was definitely not human. He needed to look into some things but first he had to get himself and his two Sekirei out of here in one piece.

A phone rang suddenly, breaking the mood entirely. Ryu sighed and sat Kaie down on the couch where Ikki reached out and placed a hand on her thigh. Kaie had shown more than enough affection for one night as far as Ikki was concerned. Her new sister was going to sit where she was until Ikki had her time.

Ryu walked over to the island between the kitchen and the living room and looked at his phone that was still ringing furiously. It was curious and strange, Ryu was sure that the only person that had his number was Ikki and Johnny. So who could or would it be calling him this late at night. Those annoying telemarketers stopped after a certain time of the day, although it was never consistent. Ryu sighed, picking it up and flipping the phone open. The entire screen lit up as a shady looking man was on the touch screen.

"Congratulations! You are now..."

End. Ryu hung up with finality. "I hate telemarketers." He grumbled as he put the phone back down on the island. Ever since he signed up for offers from the ramen stand he had been floored by telemarketers. It was getting ridiculous in his opinion, guess they were a bit persistent.

Seo on the other hand knew who the voice belonged to and burst out with laughter. "That wasn't a telemarketer." Seo managed to gasp out between bouts of laughter. He could just imagine the look on the director's face after Ryu just hung up on him.

"Scam artist?"

Seo went into a spout of even harder laughter, he was having trouble breathing now.

The phone rang for a second time. Ryu idly glanced down at it noticing it was the same number from before. He picked the phone up briskly and quickly hit the end button on the outside of the phone. He didn't even want to deal with such a strange and shady fellow.

Seo was on the ground holding his sides from the strain of laughing so hard. "Get a grip before you suffocate yourself." Ryu commented offhandedly as he watched Seo roll on the floor.

"Professor." Kaie said as she stared at the phone. Ryu quirked an eyebrow at this. Kaie knew who this strange man was? That didn't sit well with Ryu one bit. Whoever he was he looked more than shady and he didn't like the fact Kaie was associated with shady individuals.

Then the creepiness went above and beyond when their television just turned on in the blink and the man was on it. "That wasn't very nice Ryu-san. I just wanted to congratulate you for acquiring your second Sekirei!" The man said cheerfully. He didn't sound too upset at what Ryu had done, if anything he was more amused.

"Hello professor." Kaie greeted as she looked at the man on the screen.

"No. 62, Kaie! Are you doing well?"

How in the blue hell were they doing this? There wasn't even a camera built into that TV as far as Ryu knew of. Ryu interrupted the two of them. "Don't speak to Kaie like she's some sort of possession, and how do you know my name?" Ryu demanded in a snarl, some strange man he had never seen let alone met before, was using devices in ways Ryu had no idea they could be used possessing information he shouldn't have. Ryu was on guard now. It didn't matter whether Kaie knew him or not, this man knew way too much.

"I know everything that goes on in this city!" The man said and paused as he took everything in the room in for the first time. "That's interesting Seo. I didn't know you and your Sekirei were into that sort of thing and to think you would share with another Ashikabi."

A chorus of groans, sweat drops, a snarl, and blood leaking rapidly from someone's face could be heard.

"Regardless of your past times Seo I'm here for Ryu-kun!" The shady man said with a creepy grin. "I'm Hiroto Minaka the CEO of MBI! I know all about you, about the unique properties of your blood, as well as all the personal information you released to get that place you live in." Ryu narrowed his eyes but didn't say a word. If Minaka was the CEO of MBI then it stood to reason that he would indeed know all of that. Ryu began to make plans to assassinate Hiroto Minaka just in case the weirdo tried to blackmail or threaten Ikki and Kaie.

"Anyways, all of that aside you are part of the Sekirei Plan!" Minaka said boisterously as he put his hands in front of him. "The name of the game you've been a part of.

Ryu didn't like the sound of that at all. "What game?" This must be the competition Ikki had tried to explain and that Seo mentioned.

"The rules are simple." Minaka continued, ignoring Ryu's question. "There are 108 freed Sekirei in the city. These Sekirei will fight and fight! They will continue fighting until one is left. That Sekirei and their Ashikabi will be given permission to ascend." Minaka stood up and spread his arms wide out on either side of his head. "The Ashikabi who ascends with his Sekirei and overcomes all the odds will hold the fate of the entire world in his hand!"

The phone in Ryu's hand shattered into pieces as he crushed it in his steel grip. "You must be two things. Either completely insane, or a dead man, because if you're serious I'm going to kill you." Ryu snarled. The last person that tried to hold the world in their hand was Onaga. If thise Minaka thought he was going to do the exact same thing then he was going to die. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that Minaka would really let him decide that fate of the world, not that he wanted it in the first place. This whole mess must have been about the CEO and what he wanted. Leaders like this never gave away anything without getting something equal or more in return.

"Now don't be like that Ryu-kun." Minaka said as he dismissed the annoyed warrior like it was nothing. "Don't you want the fate of the world to be in your hands?" You could create your own fate instead of defying it. Anyways, since you know about this Sekirei plan you must keep it a secret from anyone else that doesn't already know. In the case that you do leak information our MBI forces will retaliate with all of our force and ability." Ryu wasn't impressed in the slightest. He doubted anything Minaka could field would be able to withstand him at full power. At least he knew the reason Seo had been hesitant to speak about it. For someone like him MBI would be a real threat.

"I am needed elsewhere Ryu-kun. Please take good care of our Ikki-chan and Kaie-chan." Minaka said and the TV turned off.

Seo whistled quietly as he sat up from where he'd been lying on the floor. He looked at Ryu in a whole new light, the blood finally returned to his face. "You got some serious balls. The only other person I know that would threaten Minaka like that is Miya over at Izumo Inn and trust me when I say she is one _scary_ woman." Seo said as his respect for Ryu went up a couple pegs.

"How much of what he said is actually true?" Ryu asked Seo, ignoring his comment, as he gestured at the blank TV with his finger.

Seo shrugged as he stood up. "Minaka has always had a few screws loose. You're probably not too far off from the truth when you called him insane. However, insane or not he is a genius that built MBI up from literally nothing to the world's greatest corporation in only twenty years time, and he wields a lot of power and influence here. He may not be physically strong but he has guardians that are, and enough money, power, and influence to make anyone of importance in japan, and even in many other places across the world do what he wants."

Ryu grimaced slightly. That would make dealing with Minaka more difficult. Even if he bulldozed through his forces and killed the insane man, the political backlash he'd take as a result would destroy any chance of a peaceful life after it was all said and done. While he didn't really mind all that much, Ikki and Kaie didn't deserve a life on the run.

That didn't mean there weren't other plans Ryu could put into place.

"I just have two more questions." Ryu said calmly as he thought back to what Minaka had said. "If 108 Sekirei are running around this city, how many have been winged already?"

Seo shrugged. "I don't know the exact number, but I'd say around 80% have been winged so far."

"Just over 20 left maybe less..." Ryu mused as he made speedy calculations in his head.

"Actually, a little less." Seo said as he looked over at his Sekirei. "There were a few Sekirei that were defeated before they found their Ashikabi and few that did find their Ashikabi have been defeated as well." Despite the interference from Homura and Ryu his twins had managed to defeat a few Sekirei before they found their Ashikabi.

Ryu frowned deeply letting out a loud sigh as he rubbed his temples. "I _hate games _that play with people's lives." There was just one question Ryu wanted answered. If he was going to be in this ridiculous "game" as Minaka casually put it he wanted to know who or what was the biggest threat. "Who in your opinion is the greatest power in this game.

Seo gained a contemplative look on his face as he thought about it for a moment. This was a tricky question. "When it comes to people actively participating in this game, it would be the Ashikabi of the east, the Ashikabi of the south, and the Ashikabi of the west. They're all powerful enough to take control of a part of the city like it's their territory. They haven't made any moves against each other so it's hard to tell who is exactly at the top." Seo answered to the best of his knowledge, those were the three great powers in this game and any of them had more than a major influence in which way this game went.

"I noticed there isn't an Ashikabi in the north. Now why is that?" Ryu asked somewhat puzzled, it was only logical that if other sectors of this city had a major player, than the north should have one as well.

Seo gulped nervously, swallowing the lump that formed in his throat. "No one dares to claim the north as theirs while the scary Hannya of the North exists. While not technically part of the Sekirei Plan, she's stronger than everyone else combined. No one dares to claim the north as long as she resides there."

That bit of information was very interesting. Ryu would have to ponder on that for a while.

Ryu glanced over at Hikari and Hibiki still hanging from the ceiling. "Ikki." The chi holding MBI wire to the ceiling disappeared unceremoniously dumping the two girls into Seo's arms as he reacted quick enough to catch them. Though he was quick enough to catch them, the sudden drop and weight sent them all tumbling to the floor. Seo wasn't prepared to catch the two of them that suddenly.

Ikki walked to Hikari while Ryu went to tend to Hibiki as they worked quickly to untie the wire from them. The draining seals slipped back into his pockets slyly as they worked through the knots. Soon the lightning twins were released from the bondage.

"So, does this mean you're letting us go?" Seo asked hopefully as he climbed up to his feet. He really didn't want to end up as fish food, or worse sharks. Hikari and Hibiki were next to climb to their feet, although a little more shaky and began to work back the circulation back into their limbs kneading their flesh. They'd been hogtied for at least a good three hours now.

Ryu nodded slowly fixing them with a glare. "You can go. You've answered all the questions I have asked, I have more but I doubt you know the answer." At least none that he'd freely answer. Ryu wasn't that naive to think Seo would spill everything, even if he was pressured with a blade to his trachea. Ryu waved his hand lazily at the door indicating that they could leave. "You're free to go. What happened here tonight is never to be spoken of. Am I clear?"

Seo and the twins nodded their heads furiously. None of them wanted a repeat of what happened tonight. The three of them hurried out of the apartment, Seo's hand discreetly pocketed something, and headed out. Ryu followed them out into the hall to make sure they were off of the floor and gone before returning. He locked the door behind him after shutting it and nodded at Ikki. It was just the three of them now.

Ryu entered the living room, leaning against the island letting out a sigh. "Great, we're stuck in some ridiculous game ran by a madman. What a way to end the day." Ryu mumbled as he massaged his temples.

Kaie got off of the couch and on her feet. "Don't worry Ryu-san, I'll fight my hardest for you! I'll survive and win this game so we can ascend together." Declared in a determined voice.

"Do you know what it means to ascend?" Ryu asked.

"Of course! Why?"

"I thought I'd just ask..." Ryu scratched his head as he looked over at his fiance. She just shrugged his shoulders slightly. She was in the mindset as him. "What are we going to do about sleeping arrangements?"

"I want to be by Ryu-sama." Kaie replied as she gently took Ryu's arm in her own.

"I don't mind taking the couch," Ikki said shyly. Now that the situation was defused and Ryu wasn't in any danger she reverted back to her shyer self. She wanted to be with her Ryu-kun but...

"No," Ryu said as he walked over to Ikki, Kaie still gently holding onto his muscular arm.

"You love Ryu-sama as much as I do. I can feel it. It's not right for you to be separated from him either." Kaie said as she leaned over and pulled Ikki up to her feet.

"I'm siding with Kaie on this one and 'kun' is just fine. It's been every guy's dream since the dawn of time to sleep with two women at the same time." Ryu said trying to hide his grin. He could already see them both in sexy sleepwear and somewhere in the distance Johnny was dying from blood loss.

Ikki blushed lightly as she turned her head to look at Kaie. "Okay. I guess that's fine. Ummmm... Kaie just n-no sex okay?" She stumbled over that sentence a little bit. She was NOT going to let his first time be with anybody but her.

Kaie titled her head to the side and looked at Ikki with a straight face. "Sex? You don't want to do it tonight? That's okay I can wait, if that's what you want."

Ryu and Ikki looked at her for a moment. They had both known Kaie was patient. It wasn't until know that they realized just how patient she really was. Sometimes it was like she was a saint or shaman in an adult woman's body.

Ikki giggled quietly and just nodded her head. "Okay, we can focus on that later, much later." _After I've had my way with Ryu a couple times. _She thought. Ikki grabbed Ryu's other arm and began to pull him towards the bedroom. "Let's get changed and wash up, it's been a long day."

"Okay." Kaie agreed with a nod pulling on Ryu's other arm.

* * *

Ryu opened his eyes slowly blinking the sleep away wearily. Something out of place had caused him to stir awake. He knitted his brows feeling only one presence in the bed beside him. He turned right and saw Kaie there, cuddling his arm between her breasts. Kaie wasn't wearing very much, unable to wear any of Ikki's dresses due to the size of her mounds of flesh. Instead all she wore was a pair of white panties, not that Ryu minded very much. He enjoyed looking at the well developed female.

He brought his free hand over and began to brush the tips of Kaie's breasts for a moment. He smiled when Kaie uttered his name in her sleep and moaned quietly. His eyes widened for a brief second as he realized what the missing presence meant. Ikki wasn't in bed with them. Ryu placed a gentle kiss on Kaie's forehead, and removed his arm gently from her grasp and left the room to be at Ikki's side.

He didn't go far, just the next room over. Ikki was sitting on the couch staring out the window into the city skyline beyond. She didn't turn to look when he stepped into the room and moved beside her. She knew it was him. Ikki was wearing the same nightgown she had the night before. A sheer white one piece that left little to the imagination.

"What's troubling you, Ikki?" Ryu asked softly as he sat beside Ikki and wrapped his arms around her.

Ikki leaned into his embrace sighing softly. "I... Don't know." She did, but didn't know how to put it into words. "I just feel like things are beginning to spin out of control."

"No worries." Ryu said soothingly as he kissed her on the head. "I'm always by your side, Ikki. Just lean on me and I'll carry you through any storm that comes our way." A smile pulled at her lips before it disappeared again. "Now what's really wrong?"

Ikki blushed a deep crimson and tilted her head up to look Ryu in the eyes. "How long have we been together?" Ikki asked, she raised a finger to his lips when he was about to respond. "Don't answer that. We've been together for some time and I love you so much and yet..."

Hanabi tilted her head back down and stared out the window. "With this game, there will never be anytime for intimacy. I understood and accepted that. But we've been together for two months and yet... We're still no closer than we were at the very start."

"And, Kaie is here now and you're afraid she's going to replace you?" Ryu asked slowly. Ikki didn't answer. She'd be lying if the thought hadn't crossed her mind at least once, but that wasn't the whole issue. Ryu gently placed a hand on Ikki's chin and tilted her head to face him. "No one will ever replace you Ikki. No matter how many people may enter our lives."

Forest green wings flared from the back of her neck as Ryu kissed her passionately. Ikki leaned into the kiss and returned it with equal passion as a heat built within her like never before.

As soon as the kiss was broken Ikki found her dress pulled over her head and threw to the floor along with Ryu's shorts. She was now spread out across the couch her head on the cushioned side. A gasp that turned into a shuddering moan escaped her lips when Ryu began to places kisses all over her neck and body as his hands journeyed across her most sensitive areas.

She slowly arched her body and moaned in pleasure as Ryu's fingers found the building heat between her legs and began to work relentlessly. He coated his fingers with a small amount of chi to enhance the feeling and depth at which Ikki felt the mind numbing pleasure. Ikki bit back a moan, grabbed Ryu's head and brought it up to kiss him passionately. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and began to wage war with his tongue.

This is what she wanted, this what she spent years waiting for and dreaming of, and she was going to enjoy for all it was worth.

Ryu broke off their passionate and aggressive kiss and trailed down her body placing kisses on every inch of it until he ended up at her breasts and began to play with them gently with his lips. He slowly trailed the fingertips of his free hand up her side, causing her to be wracked with shivers of pleasure that left her breathless, until he reached her other breast and began to knead and massage it.

The heat between Ikki's leg continued building as Ryu continued his ministrations until she couldn't hold it in any longer. "Ryu!" Ikki cried out in pure ecstasy. Her entire body went stiff and arched up into Ryu's, shaping to his body, as she reached a climax.

Ryu lifted his head and kissed Ikki tenderly on the lips. "I'm far from done." Ryu whispered into her ear, his breath sending a chill down her spine. He laid his head besides hers. He had both hands placed on her chest now slowly applying ministrations.

Ikki turned her head slightly to gaze into Ryu's violet eyes. The soft smile on her lips and love shining in her eyes conveying her everything. "Ryu, please, I've waited so long. I want to be yours utterly and completely, forever and ever. Take me."

* * *

**If anyone wants the full lemon just PM me. I'm iffy with them, don't want too much detail, don't want to skimp out on the details. This was to simply convey Ryu and Ikki moving ahead in their relationship and him dropping his barriers and shield he's always kept up, so I wanted it to mean something not just the two banging their private parts until exhaustion hits, and I'm not a total schmuck where I write out a full blown porn scene, that's too much. I feel like I'm missing something at the end of this, but I'm reaching my word limit. See ya!**

**Anyways likes for reading and leave a review! **


	9. Ill Will

**Wow. Naruto is getting pretty crazy, and a little off. How do they just rip eyes out and just put them back in, what about the nerves and everything else? I think Kishi is doing a lot of things for just the hell of it.**

* * *

"Good morning Ashikabi-sama." Two voices whispered in his ears as he slowly opened his eyes. Someone nibbled on his right ear as a hand slid between his legs while another pair of lips mashed with his own. A brilliant golden light filled the room as eight gold wings flared out from Kaie's crest.

As the pair of lips pulled away Ryu opened his eyes gazing up into the smiling face of Kaie. "Good morning Ryu-kun." Kaie said with a small smile as she cupped her breasts in her hands. She was kneeling on the bed on Ryu's left still clad in only a pair of white panties.

Ryu took in the sight, he was really one lucky guy. "Good morning." Ryu said with a smile as he turned his head to look at Ikki who was smiling herself. Her hand was still working itself between his legs as he raised an eyebrow curiously at the indigo eyed woman. "Last night has made you bolder." Ryu teased as he kissed Ikki on the forehead.

Ikki blushed lightly but didn't stop her rhythm. "I don't know what you're talking about, Ashikabi-_sama." _Ikki replied with a grin, emphasizing the honorific.

Ryu groaned for two different reasons. "You love teasing me." Ryu said with a grunt as Ikki finished her ministrations. The sheets bucked a couple times but Kaie didn't seem to care to notice. Ikki sat up in the bed allowing the covers to fall off of her as she stretched. Ryu got another eyeful of Ikki's breasts and he stiffened again despite having just been released. Ryu could only thank the Elder Gods for bringing him and Ikki together. When he was younger he never would've even thought of the possibility that one day he would be with such a woman.

Ikki grinned down at Ryu, more than aware of the view she was giving him. "Kaie, let's go start breakfast. I think our Ashikabi-sama here needs to wash up in the bathroom before he does anything." Ikki's grin grew as she looked down at the tent rising in the sheets.

"I'll join you. I'll wash your back." Kaie offered.

Ikki gave Kaie an incredious look for a moment then realizing that Kaie knew the sexual implications in the statement. "You can another time, I want to show you how to prepare breakfast."

Kaie just nodded as she got out of the bed. Ikki followed suit jumping out of the bed revealing that she still wasn't wearing anything from their exercise last night. Ryu stared at her perfectly shaped and toned ass and toned long legs as she sauntered out of the room sashaying her hips. Kaie followed as well, neither bothered to put anything on. "Last night made her bolder." Ryu said to himself after the two of them left. He lifted the covers glancing down. "These need to be washed, maybe replaced." Ryu sniffed the air for a moment. "Or replaced."

Ryu wasn't in the shower for long. Like most guys, he could jump in, clean up and get out in under ten minutes despite having to wash his long hair. Most guys could break five minutes if there was a beautiful girl waiting for them just outside, and he had two. Five minutes later Ryu strolled out of the bathroom clean and dressed in his regular clothes.

His sensitive hearing picked up the conversation from the kitchen. "...And this is how you prepare the egg." Ikki said as the sound of sizzling accompanied by Ikki's explanation.

"I understand." That was Kaie Ryu idly noted as he left the bedroom and made his way into the living room. Ryu turned to Kaie he froze and stared at the sight he saw. Kaie was there of course, standing beside Hanabi looking over at the stove where Ikki was making bacon and eggs just like yesterday. And Kaie was definitely attractive and almost completely naked but it was Ikki who caught his attention.

"Girl naked in an apron." Ryu murmured as he stared at another fantasy come to life. A beautiful girl wearing nothing but an apron cooking breakfast. It was every guy's dream.

Ikki turned at hearing his voice and smiled at him. "I see you're finished," Ikki observed taking in Ryu's appearance. Ikki then turned to Kaie. "Why don't you wash up? I'll have breakfast ready when you're done."

"Okay." Kaie nodded looking at the bacon for a moment, she really liked the smell it was giving off.

"I'll make extra bacon." Ikki said with a laugh as she pushed Kaie towards the bedroom gently.

"I'll be back." Kaie said as she sauntered into the bathroom.

Ikki watched her leave with a content expression. "I can't believe I was ever jealous of her. She's so mannered and helpful." Ikki said as she faced Ryu. "Are you just going to stand there gawking at me with your mouth hanging open?"

Ryu shook his head clear of its stupor and walked over to Ikki. "You're get more beautiful every time I see you." Ryu said as he hugged her. Ikki blushed slightly at the compliment and leaned into his embrace. "Such a nice thing to say." She replied. She turned around going back to cooking breakfast.

Ryu still had his arms around her shoulders as he slid them down the front of the apron. He placed light kisses on Ikki's neck. She parted her lips slightly as she softly moaned, she was holding back still concentrating on preparing the food before her as Ryu began to knead her breasts. "Ryu. I can't concentrate when you do that..." She barely gasped out beginning to squirm.

"Hmm." He began kneading more vigorously. "I can't help myself after last night. It's like a wall that held back a torrent of desire has been opened." Ryu quietly said as he kissed Ikki's cheek.

"I'll have to do my best to hold this torrent back," Ikki replied with a lustful smile, she was becoming very hot and aroused by this and squirmed more. "I don't want you to unleash yourself on Kaie just yet."

"Keep grinding against me like that and you'll find out how much you have to hold back."

Ikki turned her head up looking into Ryu's eyes and smiled. That didn't so bad to do right now.

Kaie left the bathroom, now garbed in her original version of her outfit except for the collar, she glanced noticing Ryu escorting a slightly limping Ikki into the bedroom. Ikki had lost her apron somewhere and Ryu looked a little more wild than he had twenty minutes prior.

Ikki was mumbling something counter tops not being as great as the magazines had suggested. This of course made some sense to Kaie. Ryu looked more amused than anything. Ikki smiled at Kaie as they passed one another. "Breakfast is ready and set. Go ahead and help yourself I need to wash up before I eat."

"I'll save some for you and Ryu-kun." Kaie replied as she walked to the door. She stopped for a moment and turned to face Ikki, a thoughtful and curious expression crossing her face. "Did you spill anything when you were cooking by chance? Is that why?"

Ikki blinked. "I don't believe I did, why?"

"There's egg whites on your leg." Kaie said politely as she pointed at Ikki's inner right thigh. Then she was out of the bedroom to go eat her breakfast.

Ryu and Ikki both blushed. "It's times like this I'm glad she's so polite." Ryu said in a quiet and embarrassed voice.

Ikki nodded in agreement.

* * *

_Flashback: Time: One Month Ago_

Ryu was getting impatient. A feat that had been rarely been done or seen throughout his life, but he was now nonetheless. At first, it had been nothing more than patience and discipline that kept him from wringing Cage's neck, that truth astounded him, now it was clear he couldn't deny it.

Johnny loved agitating him.

The man sat across from him, a smirk on his face, and dressed in a gray suit with a matching tie and his glasses that seemed to never leave his face. Ryu could hardly believe this man was a warrior, an accomplished warrior, regardless of his flawed and perverted side, he helped turn the tides in Earth's favor time after time.

"Ryu, you dog." The voice of the brown haired man, Johnny said as he brought his hand forward resting them on the table, fingers gripped at the surface in suspense and disbelief. The curiosity filled his blue eyes, looking at Ryu.

"Relax Johnny." Ryu said groaning his annoyance. He was beginning to regret having his friend come to the apartment.

Johnny cleared his throat quietly composing himself. As much as he'd love to ogle the lovely woman seated on the couch in the living room Ryu was protective of her, and he was smart enough he liked his eyes in his head. "I don't know how you get so lucky." Johnny shook his head a few times clearing his mind of the perverted thoughts. "Anyways I come with good news."

Ryu smiled slightly at hearing that. That would be a welcome change, and maybe he could finally get the answers to fill in the holes. "Well tell me." He said quickly but politely although his eyes glimmered with eagerness to have his answers.

"Yes, well first thing is first." Johnny said digging his hand through his pants pockets, a second later he pulled out a blue card tossing it on the table in front of Ryu. He lounged back in his seat waiting to see his reaction and for him to take it.

"A credit card?"

"You need a resource of cash, until you find a job. Don't worry about the costs."

Ryu looked at the card for a long moment before pocketing it. Well that solved the cost of food. He sipped the warm tea that Ikki made before Johnny arrived, he was taken a back by the act but Ikki chocked it up to being polite. "And the other news?"

Johnny rubbed his chin in deep thought for a moment before putting that cocky smirk on his face. "There's some game going on here, according to news reports the city is seized and renamed Shinto Teito. Some company that's been revolutionizing the medical field in this country, that goes by the name of Med Bio Informatics or MBI for short." Ryu nodded with his steady stare gesturing him to continue. "And the life force readings we're picking up belong to these Sekirei and they all have different and unique abilities."

"So it's for certain?"

Johnny nodded soberly continuing his explanation. "Yes, they are all superhuman in their attributes and capabilities. I found a few things pointing to interstellar or portal traveling but it's still too little to go on to get an exact answer as to where their origins stem from. Aside from me and you nobody else knows of this development."

Ryu narrowed his eyes hearing the trepidation in his friend's voice. "Make sure to keep it that way. We don't need things getting blown out of proportion."

"Having a change of heart?" Johnny half asked half teased.

"The OIA hasn't exactly been known to be tolerant or subtle." Ryu replied bluntly. He had worked closely with the two leaders as he viewed them of the agency Jax and Sonya. Jax was a powerfully built sergeant and a technological genius to boot, that gift was the sole reason of mechanical arms. Sonya was the second in command and oversaw each task and mission with her critical and watchful eye.

Johnny sighed softly nodding his agreement. "Not to worry. It's a private subject, and will be kept as such." Johnny replied, the last thing he wanted was Sonya to lose her temper. Although she was even more gorgeous when she was angry he didn't want to risk her ire or Jax's wrath after the fact. "Well, I better be going can't stay in one place too long." Johnny said as he rose from his chair stretching his arms out his sides.

"Thanks for your time, I'll walk you out." Ryu thanked him with a slight bow as he rose from his seat strolling towards the door. Johnny followed after him glancing back at Ikki who looked at him with a hint of curiosity.

"Oh, and keep an eye on the news in the coming future." Johnny said suddenly as a thought popped into his mind that he almost forgot.

Ryu raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"There will be someone arriving coming here, and his power will be great."

Ryu stared at him with his dimly glowing violet irises. "I'll keep my eye out, but could you give me more? What's he look like? Is he a native of Japan or one of the realms? Is he dangerous?" Ryu fired one question after the next keeping his intense stare fixed.

"He is from the states, and will be flying here in due time. He won't intend to attract attention or trouble but he will. And no he is one of our own, Earth native. You'll know when he arrives, it'll be unmistakable."

Ryu suppressed his urge to sigh. That was vague, extremely vague. This lack of information was killing him, he learned to always think and plan ahead and moved with a purpose. He liked knowing where he stood, but if he isn't immediately dangerous to him or Ikki then he'd inquire a few things, questions. "Thanks I'll make sure." Ryu said with a hint of agitation.

"And one more thing. Take my personal number." Johnny said giving Ryu one of his more serious looks. Ryu blinked a few times before he left the hallway and went back near the island to find a pen and piece of paper. Ikki who had been standing a few inches behind Ryu looked at Johnny with narrowed eyes.

"You wish to speak with me Johnny-san?" Ikki asked maintaining her polite tone though her eyes filled with suspicion.

"Johnny's fine." He said with a wide grin. "How long have you known Ryu?"

Ikki frowned. "A month, maybe more. Why?"

"A month." Johnny muttered looking at Ikki hard for a moment. "I would like to ask you for a favor."

Ikki looked at him for a few moments. Her eyes searching him for any ulterior motive or deception but she found nothing. If it was for her Ryu-kun she'd do everything in her power. "What is it?"

Johnny sighed softly smiling for a moment as he kept his senses stretched around him keeping track of Ryu's progress. He had about two minutes to spare before he came back, for once he was thankful for a delay. "I've known Ryu since he was a kid, he grew up around me." Johnny started. "We are close, he trusts me and I trust him. But it's strictly on a business and duty sense nothing less and nothing more." Ikki nodded slowly trying to grasp what he was getting at, Johnny continued seeing her confusion. "Basically we aren't close in that regard, but you've been with him for more than a month. And I've seen a different side of him than the Ryu I watched grow into a man..." He paused.

"I'm sorry, I still don't understand." Ikki said.

"Please. Take care of him." Johnny said softly but his voice held a tinge of strange emotion to it.

Ikki nodded her head vigorously without any hesitation. She never had to be asked or told to take care of him. She'd do it in a heartbeat even if they weren't close... Intimately yet they were still making progress in that area but she wouldn't rush or push it. "Of course." She said with a hard voice filled with resolve. Johnny looked at her for a moment with a sincere smile mouthing the words thank you.

"Ikki is he bothering you?" Ryu asked as he came behind the two of them with a pen and piece of paper in either hand staring at Johnny with what seemed to be annoyance.

"No. He's quite the gentleman." Ikki said smiling. He wasn't exactly bothering her, but she didn't want to tell Ryu about their private chat. Something inside told her to keep it to herself.

"I do try." Johnny said returning to his jovial and cocky self. "At least someone notices."

Ryu rolled his eyes but chuckled lightly. "I'm sure," he said while shaking his head Johnny was just too much sometimes. He could always count on the man to bring a smile to his face or make him laugh with his over the top antics. Ryu took down Johnny's personal number in case he needed to contact him. Johnny also made it clear that no one else was going to get involved and Ryu had free reign on how he proceeded, and lastly he explained the credit card was good for just about anything and not to worry of the costs.

* * *

_Present time_

It didn't take long for Ryu to figure out how the bank machines worked, but there were a few that refused any cash withdraw from the card. However there were other ways to get cash.

Like buying a luxury car and selling it to an underground dealership, chop shop, or the Yakuza at a reduced price for cash. There was and would always be a high demand for luxury items that couldn't be traced.

Ryu was extra careful though, if a bunch of luxury purchases suddenly appeared on the card transaction list but Ryu wasn't seen using them there would be a lot of questions asked he didn't want to answer. Even if the item was something that didn't seem likely that he would purchase for Ikki's or his personal use then may get curious, too curious. Despite having Johnny's consent. He didn't want them to cancel the card, he wanted to choose when he was done with it.

However over the past month roughly Ryu made good use of the card to stash a load of cash in a secret location in the northern part of the city. He knew the day would come sooner or later when he had to ditch the card, and he didn't want to be stuck penniless if he hadn't found a proper job at that time. Ikki was aware and knew of this as well but never mentioned anything. So long as they had the card they didn't need cash which was a relief. Because of these purchases and sales Ryu now had little over three million yen in cash tucked away, he didn't have the proper paperwork or documentation to open up a bank account. Not that he'd ever trust a third party to handle his money even if he could.

At this moment Ryu was considering making another purchase as he, Ikki, and Kaie scanned through the shelves of the store they were currently in. Ryu was in need of a new cell phone, his being destroyed the night before, so that's where they went first. The store was modest about three meters wide and eight meters deep although the ceiling was high. There was least four meters of space between his head and the ceiling. There were several display cases that showed off the newest phones out on the market. There were shelves on the walls that held older models or the less popular ones. The store itself was located in a large shopping mall on the eastern side of the city. He recalled Johnny going on and on about the large shopping centers when there was enough time to just relax.

He was thinking about buying a dozen phones and selling them most of them off save one or two. He could justify it and say he broke it when he almost lost his temper and he wanted spares if it happened again.

Ryu decided to settle on a dozen phones of the same type. They were the new LG Lucid 3 phones. They were a good choice because of the battery life. They could be unlocked without much of a hassle and has a good memory storage. He also liked the name. He had a rough idea of what lucid meant, and it sounded cool, you could never go wrong with that. Kaie was browsing through a bunch of older non-smart phones at the back of the store as Ryu walked up to the counter.

"I would like a dozen of these phones please." Ryu sad curtly as he placed one of the display versions of the LG Lucid 3. The girl at the counter stared for a moment before giving Ryu an incredulous look. "My phones tend to get broken or the screens crack... I want extras just in case." He said apologetically and he shrugged sheepishly scratching the back of his neck. The lady behind the counter sighed softly as she walked to get a dozen phones from the back storage room.

Ryu began to rummage through his pocket looking for the card. "Okay." He said as he emptied his pockets, gripping the card in his left hand.

"What's up?" Ikki asked turning at the sound of his voice. She walked over to him wrapping her arm around his.

"I thought I forgot the card."

Ikki just smiled lightly with a quiet giggle. "That's just like you Ryu-kun. I'm going to go the bathroom, keep Kaie company. I shouldn't be gone long." The mall wasn't that big so it wouldn't take her long to find out. It's not like there wasn't one every sixteen steps you took.

"Okay." Ryu said. Ikki smiled again and left the store as she quickly made her way to the bathroom, keeping her senses stretched out around her.

Kaie walked over to Ryu. "Where is Ikki going?" She asked tilting her head to the side curiously, she noticed Ikki leaving the store.

"She just went to the bathroom." Ryu replied as he wrapped his arm around Kaie's shoulders. "She'll be back."

Kaie stared out of the door for a few moments before she turned back to Ryu. "Oh, so we're alone." Kaie said with a small smile. She wanted to be closer to her Ashikabi, now was the perfect time.

"We are," Ryu said thoughtfully as he guided Kaie to a bench just outside the store. Ryu dully noted the girl from the counter had not returned yet. It shouldn't have taken this long to find the phones. "I'd like to get to know you better." He said as he sat down on the bench patting the spot beside him. Kaie sat beside him.

"What would you like to know about me?" Kaie asked curiously.

"What kind of Sekirei are you?" Ryu wasn't too worried about anyone overhearing. It was still early in the morning and during the work week. It was practically empty here, since the mall wasn't doing so well recently. It made getting deals easier since the people were more desperate to sell merchandise than normal. "I'm getting a feeling there are many different types. I've encountered one that fought with a spear and a pair of lighting bondage twins." Ryu still couldn't believe those two would run around in those outfits willingly.

Kaie snapped her hands, almost instantly several whips were in her hand. "I'm a weapon type Sekirei." She said proudly as she brought her arms down setting them in her lap. "I'll fight all of your enemies as hard as I can for you Ryu-kun. I won't lose!"

Ryu nodded slightly as he put his arm back around her shoulders. So Kaie was a weapons specialist, specifically with whips. That meant there was a lot he could teach her about fighting to improve. Had she been an elemental basked Sekirei it would have made things more difficult. The way he used and attuned his chi seemed a lot different than how the lighting twins used and attuned theirs. Kaie leaned into Ryu's embrace resting her head on his shoulders. Ryu moved his arm down and wrapped it around her right arm and chest. "How about you be trained by me and Ikki? Would you like that?" Ryu asked as he looked down at Kaie in his arms. "I have some fighting experience and Ikki is gaining more, we could probably help you become stronger."

Kaie's eyes glowed. "Really Ryu-kun? Thank you!" Kaie said as happiness radiated from her. Ryu swore he saw joy actually jump from Kaie's eyes. "I have the best Ashikabi."

Why was the desk girl taking so long to get his request?

Ryu tensed as he felt a presence approaching him that was different than the rest. He glanced up from Kaie noticing a well dressed young man getting nearer. He had short brown hair neatly combed and brown eyes he appeared to be of an average build maybe above for a Japanese man. He was wearing a white suit with a matching dress shirt beneath it finishing it off with a tie. Everything about him seemed normal, like he was nothing more than the son of some business empire.

The things that set him apart from anyone else that Ryu met were the two facts that he was looking at Ryu as he approached and the two women trailing behind him. One of the women wore a fitted yellow and black jumpsuit while the other one had black hair that wore a white and blue dress that resembled a maid's. He also sensed the large chi levels emanating from both of them.

"Ryu Neimou, a pleasure to finally make your acquaintance." The suit clad man said as he stopped just in front of Ryu. He kept a friendly smile on his face and his voice was rather lighthearted as he addressed him. But Ryu wasn't fooled the smile never reached his eyes.

But there was no need to be hostile so long as he and his Sekirei remained polite and courteous as well. Courtesy wouldn't cost him anything. "Nice to see you too. Although I'm at a loss here since I don't have your name." Ryu said with a composed smile as he returned the greeting.

"The name is Higa." The man held his hand out for Ryu to shake. "Higa Izumi." The man finished identifying himself with the same false smile. Ryu shook his hand nodding his head slowly.

"Well, nice to meet you Higa-san." Ryu replied, staying polite. "What is it you want of me, exactly? You're not the type of person who wanders about making friends with strangers randomly." Ryu replied getting right to the point, the sooner he finished with this Higa the sooner he could get back to something more pleasant. Like enjoying Kaie's company.

"Straight to the point." Higa said with a tinge of amusement in his voice. "Words game get tiring." He brought his arm behind his back straightening slightly as he spoke. "I'll get right to the point, I want you."

"No thanks." Ryu said, cutting Higa off. This was going a lot worse than he thought it would.

Higa frowned deeply biting back an insulting retort. "Not that way. I mean your services, you're a man with very... Unique capabilities."

"Unique capabilities?" Ryu asked, pretending he didn't know what Higa was aiming for.

"Don't think of me as a fool. I am the heir of a very powerful pharmaceutical company. And, while we may not have MBI's power and influence we have our sources of information, and individuals capable of obtaining less accessible information." It seemed the pharmacy companies were the new spy networks because it always seemed to be them that ran everything, not the government. "One of my associates witnessed you executing something very interesting while fighting those twins."

Ryu was starting to wonder if he was going to need to leave three corpses behind before he headed back home. He glanced down at Kaie, maybe it wouldn't be so bad, he wasn't sure if Kaie would even bat an eyelash at the sight.

There was a brief moment of silence, then Higa smirked giving Ryu a knowing look. "Let's continue," Higa said letting the man know he had some blackmail material. "I loathe MBI." He admitted continuing. "We're rival companies. We've been around for over a century and then that company comes out of nowhere and pushes us out of the way. The way they use their money to buy everything, silence the media, buy out politicians. It's despicable." He wasn't going to admit that his company used the same tactics. "With your unique abilities, and your Sekirei, together we can bring that upstart company MBI down. If we could isolate even one Sekirei and use your unique abilities on it we could gain power and influence the world over significantly." There was no 'we' there wasn't ever to begin with, they both knew it though Higa wasn't aware that Ryu knew that. "We could topple whatever that lunatic Minaka has planned."

Higa wanted Ryu and his abilities. They could really help him bring down MBI. He didn't care about the farce Sekirei plan in the slightest, the Sekirei were nothing more than tools for him to use to further his goals. Ryu would be the same. And Higa didn't allow any Ashikabi to run around free in his territory. If Ryu refused his offer, he had called in some insurance just in case.

Ryu scowled. He really hoped that no one had seen his techniques, he was extremely careful not to show the real depths of them. Even worse they must have seen everything he did, Ikki included. This man had significant blackmal material, Ryu wasn't stupid enough to think Higa didn't come here with a backup plan in case this fell through the roof. No good leader would step forward in front of the enemy unless they held every advantage and mapped out every scenario. And this Higa looked like someone trying to take the lead.

However Ryu wasn't going to side with either party. MBI was far from trustworthy and was run by a lunatic. Higa appeared to be even shadier if his choice of words were anything to go by. His safest bet would be to just decline, he wasn't close to anyone that was capable of defending themselves.

"I have to decline." Ryu said after a moment of thinking. "Don't misunderstand, I'm not siding with MBI. Minaka needs to die." This was better than just flat out refusal which was his first choice since he was straight forward. But after years watching 'diplomacy' he understood the power in words.

Hige creased his brows in a frown. He had expected as much from what his sources found out about Ryu. He was aware Ryu had deals with unsavory characters and to get out of those dealings unharmed meant he was more than just a little experienced in verbal warfare.

"If that's your answer, I will accept it. But think it over, I'm sure you'll reconsider my offer eventually." Higa said with a smile that was condescending and screamed 'I know something you don't.'

Ryu stared the man in the eyes. "Thanks for the offer. I was looking for a job, but not that kind. But, if I change my mind I'll be sure to let you know." Ryu replied as he nodded farewell to the well dressed Ashikabi.

"We will be in touch." Higa said as he continued past Ryu and headed out of the mall.

When Higa and his two companions were out of sight Ryu scowled in the direction he had went. Kaie had a slight glare as she followed Ryu's eyes to the exit. "I don't trust him, something about him feels, bad." Kaie was weary of that man. If he was expecting them to decline his offer, that meant someone was heading to...

"Ryu-kun, Kaie-san what's wrong?" Ikki asked as he returned, sensing the turbulent emotions flaring inside of him and seeing Kaie's icy glare. She didn't like seeing Ryu likes this.

"We gotta go, we're in danger."

Ikki gasped quietly and began to pull Ryu in the first direction that came to mind. "We should go back home and pack some things then!"

Kaie placed a hand on Ikki's arm. "We are, but we're not heading east of here, we're heading north." Ryu glanced noticing that the front desk lady at the counter of the phone store never did return with his request. He sniffed the air a few times hard catching a lingering scent.

Blood.

If he stayed a moment longer he would have seen a pool of blood spilling from the back door.

Higa lounged back in the comfortable plush seats on his private limousine digging his phone from his pockets. "What will you do Higa-sama?" The girl in the tight fitting yellow suit asked in a tired and melancholy voice. "Toyotama and Ichiya moved ahead.

"They'll pull back and regroup immediately at my office." He said offhandedly as he began digging through his pocket pulling out a phone, he flipped the phone open and dialing the buttons he brought it to his ear. A scowl slowly crept onto his face. "Are you ready?"

"Hell yeah." A gruff voice replied from the other end filled with malice. "We'll be ready to strike that bastard."

* * *

**Wow this a fast update eh? Kind of a cliffhanger, anyone have guesses who the other person is on the phone? I found the flashback funny, Cage does have a tendency to get on everyone's nerves especially Jax.**


End file.
